“Test, alert, protect” is the strategy implemented by France in the first months of the pandemic. Nearly 9.5 million tests were carried out in France between December 31, 2021 and January 6, 2022, indicates the Directorate General of Health on Friday in a press release. Compared to the previous week, the volume of tests increased by 25%.
According to the ministry, it is the extremely rapid diffusion of the Omicron variant, causing an exceptional increase in contamination, which has led the French to be massively screened. “The most recent screening figures are reaching unprecedented proportions,” the statement said.
More than one in four tests involve children
Since January 3, more than one in four tests concerns children. Between January 3 and January 7, approximately 2.7 million self-tests were distributed by pharmacists under the new doctrine for contact cases. The Omicron variant is visibly less virulent but more contagious. The number of new daily cases of contamination observed on average over the last seven days reached its highest level on Friday, at 267,223.
More and more doctors and scientists are wondering whether at this stage of the epidemic, it is necessary to continue the massive screening policy put in place by the government. “Large-scale tests are probably useless now,” said emergency doctor Yonathan Freund. “Does doing more than a million tests a day limit the circulation of the virus? I don’t believe so, or at the margin.” Today, “it is too late, we have lost control, we must accept the fact that the virus is going to circulate”, he continues. A bombshell ? “Many think the same thing but the subject is still taboo,” he said.
Benjamin Rossi, infectious disease specialist at the Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), ” [comprend] not why the government persists in these policies of tests against the Covid-19, which are excessively expensive “, he affirmed on franceinfo on Friday January 7. For him, these are millions of euros which” are not invested in infrastructure and research centers. “According to him, there is a strategy to be rethought on the part of the government. We should take more restrictive measures.
A strategy “which lacks coherence” is also what Lionel Barrand, president of the Union of Medical Biologists thinks. He “disagrees” with the strategy for testing the population for the Coronavirus. According to him, it lacks consistency.
“Do we really have to keep testing?” asks Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor, in a column published on the Doctissimo site. “Massive testing creates a vicious circle! The more you search, the more you find, the more you panic. The maddening numbers of positive tests are extremely anxiety-provoking. The protocol of iterative tests at school creates an atmosphere of anxiety among children, their parents and children. teachers”.
On the contrary, some epidemiologists see these tests as an essential tool for monitoring the pandemic. But also and above all one way, among others, to stem its progress. “Before, a contact case had to be isolated, now that this is no longer the rule, it is important to know whether you are a carrier of the virus or not”, notes epidemiologist Pascal Crépey. “The tests are not a hand brake that stops the car, but it remains an engine brake.” And according to him, “it is wrong to say that everyone will be contaminated by Omicron no matter what”.
“We do not yet know enough about its contagiousness, nor its consequences, to allow us to modify the screening strategy”, estimates the professor in epidemiology Mahmoud Zureik. “If it turns out that if it becomes an endemic virus like the common cold, the question of the relevance of the tests will arise, but we are not there yet”.
Prioritize testing
“To test differently” is the opinion of the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), Philippe Besset. In the JDD, he calls on the government to change its strategy for testing at school. For him, pharmacists will not be able to test more. “Schoolchildren must be managed in schools. We call on the Ministry of Health and National Education to quickly change the protocol because otherwise it will not be sustainable.”
For its part, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) called on Friday for a prioritization of access to tests. She asked health professionals to screen as a priority symptomatic people and at-risk contacts, those who have a medical prescription or who have already performed a self-test with a positive result.
Questions about test reliability
While screening tests remain relevant in the eyes of some, they still need to be accessible and carried out at the right time. However, “we are overwhelmed, we are reaching the limits of the system”, breaths Jérôme Grosjean, medical biologist. “The other problem is that all the tests are a bit on the same level today but they do not have the same predictive value,” he adds. Many people now prefer antigenic tests, accessible without an appointment, for a faster but less reliable result than PCR tests, which are more difficult to access. For several days, the self-tests have also been taken by storm: but here again, the result is less reliable than a PCR and the risk of possible handling error.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) recently considered that no evidence demonstrated a loss of clinical sensitivity of antigenic tests and self-tests for the detection of the Omicron variant, recommending the extension of their use in people with contact.
According to surveys of pharmacists, there are six million self-tests in stock in pharmacies as of January 7. Pharmacists have ordered 11 million self-tests for the week of January 10. For their part, manufacturers indicate that they have 27.5 million self-tests, including 14.5 million for the week of January 10.