The eighth wave of Covid-19 which is currently affecting France, with an average of 42,000 cases per day, “don’t worry us“, declared Friday September 30 on franceinfo Brigitte Autran, president of the new Committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks (Covars), who succeeded this Thursday to the Scientific Council. She believes however that “we really have to start wearing the mask again in transport“. She believes that “it must become a kind of civic gesture“. For her, the new bivalent vaccines which arrive in France on Monday, October 3 “will make it possible to better limit the infection and the transmission“.
franceinfo: The composition of this famous Covars was made public yesterday. How is it different from the Scientific Council it is supposed to replace?
Brigitte Autran: The Covars differs from the scientific council by its missions. It is not targeted only at Covid-19, but at infectious risks in general and the risks of health crises caused by infections, in particular the infections that we conceive of in what is called “global health” or ” single health”. That is to say all those infections that can be transmitted from animals to humans or from humans to animals. It will also look at the risks related to food and especially to climate change, pollution and the environment. These are therefore different missions, but also of course a different composition of the Scientific Council, even if around half of the members of Covars were already part of the Scientific Council or the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council.
Patients are now represented within this Covars. What can this change?
They already were, in particular in the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council. However, it is true that we now have two patient associations and a citizen representative on this committee. We therefore have a real representation of what is called health democracy. For me, who has worked all my life on AIDS, it changes a lot of things. We, scientists and doctors, have our own visions of how to treat patients, but it is very important to work with patients who tell us that it is not enough to make a drug. This drug must also reach the patient. It is very important to have a representative of the citizens who tells us how we are going to approach the patient.
At the top of your priorities currently remains the Covid-19. An eighth wave is affecting France, with 42,000 cases per day. Does this wave worry you?
No, she does not worry us. She is there and she is real. I say that we really have to start wearing masks again in transport and in all populated places. When you are around a fragile person, you really have to protect them. Protecting her means first getting vaccinated and then wearing a mask.
We must model ourselves on the Asian populations who have been wearing masks for a very long time as soon as they have a cold, as soon as someone has a cold in their family. I believe that now it must become a kind of civic gesture.
Brigitte Autran, President of Covarson franceinfo
For now, we are no longer in the era of mandatory masks in transport. As of now, there’s no specter of a variant villain on the horizon. It is extremely guarded all over the world. That could be the game changer. However, currently, hospitalizations are on the rise.
Bivalent vaccines, targeted on the Omicron variant, will arrive from Monday, October 3 in pharmacies. What are they going to change? Are they really much more effective than previous vaccines?
Previous vaccines are very effective and remain very effective in protecting against severe forms. The interest of new vaccines, which will include both the first strain and the new variants, will make it possible to better limit infection and transmission. You have to get vaccinated, even if you don’t have access to bivalent vaccines. I am talking about eligible populations, that is to say the over 60s, fragile people and the entourage of fragile people. For the rest of the population, for the moment, there is no question of making another recall, because we see that young people keep a good immunity which protects them against serious forms. It does not protect against infection, but it protects against serious forms. This is what is important.