Created in mid-March 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country, at the request of Emmanuel Macron, the Scientific Council is preparing to bow out on July 31. France will then officially end the state of health emergency, while the seventh epidemic wave seems to be in a descending phase and the executive insists that we must learn to “live with” the virus.
The final opinion of the Scientific Council, of around fifty pages, was published on Wednesday. It is not intended to be “a testament, nor a feedback even though the epidemic is not over”, but rather a “compass”.
The different scenarios for the coming months
For the health authority, a gradual reduction in the impact of SARS-CoV-2 is possible, thanks to the immunity of the population post-vaccinations and post-infections, but with “short-term virus circulation peaks “.
At the same time, it alerts to several “points of attention”: the “public health problem” of long Covid, mental health, “hospital exhaustion” with “deleterious effects on care” and on the response to future epidemic waves, the situation of the “fragile and precarious”, immunocompromised, elderly. The situation overseas but also in the poorest countries also remains worrying, according to the Council.
After the end of July, a “committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks”, beyond the Covid pandemic alone, must take over from the Scientific Council. The government has yet to formalize the creation, a priori by decree, and the composition of this body placed under the Ministers of Health and Research.