In front of “the enormous pressure that there is on the hospital, I do not see in the measures dictated yesterday anything which will allow a reduction of the epidemic wave quickly, in the week or two weeks”, reacted Professor Enrique Casalino, infectious disease specialist and medical director at AP-HP, Tuesday, December 28 on franceinfo.
franceinfo: Do the government’s announcements live up to your expectations?
Enrique Casalino: I have a “very caring” look and what I see is enormous pressure on the hospital, which is the usual pressure that we always have in the winter with a lot of requests for beds. Many of our beds are occupied by covid-19 patients. The outlook in the days to come and in the weeks to come is that this will continue to increase. And I do not see in the measures that have been dictated anything of the order of allowing us to reduce the epidemic wave rapidly within a week or two. I do not believe that not being able to have a coffee or a beer at the bar is something that will massively reduce the transmission of viruses which, today, concern us whether it is Covid-19 or the flu in this case. winter period and which puts the hospital system in difficulty.
Do these new measures not seem sufficient to you?
Scientifically, there is nothing in the measures that have been proposed that actually reduce viral circulation. We are still facing two epidemics at the same time. Delta which remains an extremely serious virus, responsible for intensive care admissions, responsible for hospitalizations, responsible for severe respiratory disorders. And at the same time we are faced with a new Omicron variant which is surely less serious, but which is immensely more contagious and which also risks putting us in difficulty. For the moment, we do not see what allows us to be optimistic in the next fortnight.
How do the French perceive government announcements, according to you?
There is a problem with the form. 1h45 minutes of presentation to retain three or four bars, it is really too long. I do not believe that the average Frenchman has succeeded in fully understanding what was expected of him from next Monday, not from today, but from next Monday. Second, basically, excuse me and I may be a bit corporate, but there is nothing on the world of health. Not just the hospital, the whole health system expects stronger messages. We are in an extremely difficult, very constrained period, we were waiting for something that gives us a perspective, a horizon on which we will orient ourselves.