It is a crisis in the health crisis: in ten years, France has considerably reduced its stock of protective masks. What are the reasons for this? Investigation.
"We have tens of millions of masks in stock in the event of an epidemic, these are things that are already programmed. If one day we were to offer masks to this or that population or person at risk, the health authorities would distribute these masks to those who need them."
January 26th, 2020. Faced with the microphones and cameras, Agnès Buzyn, who is still Minister of Solidarity and Health, wants to reassure herself: according to her, there will be no shortage of masks in the event of an epidemic of the Covid-19 virus on French soil.
However, just over a month later, on March 4, 2020, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced that the State would requisition "all stocks and production of protective masks" to distribute them to caregivers and people suffering from the coronavirus. On 13 March 2020, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe issued a decree requisitioning stocks and production of masks until 31 May 2020.
On 17 March 2020, on France Inter, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, estimated on France Inter that "110 million masks" remained in the State's stocks, whereas there were more than a billion ten years earlier. "We have enough masks today to enable health workers to be armed in the face of disease and to treat the sick," Véran said at the time. "But depending on how long the epidemic lasts, we don't know if we'll have enough in the long run."
"Like the tainted blood scandal."
The medical staff then discovered, appalled, that France did not have the necessary stock of masks to cope with the epidemic https://jdgoshop.com/product/kn95-medical-face-masks/.
"For us, it's a real state scandal," says Thierry Amouroux, spokesman for the National Union of Nursing Professionals (SNPI). "It's of the same order as the tainted blood scandal. Hundreds of thousands of people will be contaminated, others will die because of this unpreparedness on the part of the government and the bad decisions that have been taken. The basic principle is to have FFP2 masks in stock. These masks, like the surgical masks, should have been ordered as soon as possible. To govern is to plan ahead. When the crisis is over, we hope that some officials who were unable to organize the country's health defense will be held accountable."
"It's staggering, we didn't think the state's stocks were so low," indignant in turn the president of the union of biologists (SDB), François Blanchecotte, on the front line to carry out the tests for coronavirus. "We don't have enough masks to work properly. Some of us had stockpiled masks from the time of H1N1, but they were out of date. And it's not just about masks: mass screening in France is hardly feasible, we don't have the means in terms of materials and reagents to carry out these tests."
"This is serious professional misconduct," says Jean-Paul Hamon, president of the French Federation of Doctors (FMF). "At the beginning of the crisis, the ministry told us they were ready, that there were state stocks. But in recent weeks, we realized that this was false. It is not acceptable to send health workers to the brink without any protection. This administration, which imposes often restrictive procedures on us, is incapable of properly protecting the health professionals who will be caring for patients in this epidemic.
"Patients bring us masks."
Faced with this situation, it is the D system that dominates: "It is the patients who bring us masks and help us," says Jean-Paul Hamon. "An architect brought us a pack of 50 FFP2 masks. We're doing DIY: Breton doctors are collecting stocks of masks in the basement of the Rennes town hall. In Mulhouse, it's companies that supply masks or gowns. Liberal doctors are organizing themselves without going through the administration."
"It's a frantic race to find surgical masks", confirms François Blanchecotte, while faced with the health crisis, laboratories are forced to concentrate on certain technical platforms in the area to carry out their analyses. "We call on town halls, industrialists and companies who have masks in stock."
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