The National Directorate of Public Health must be more independent of the political decisions of the government, pleads the chief scientist of Quebec, Rémi Quirion.
Mr. Quirion notes that a certain confusion has been created over the months on the reasons behind the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and health measures.
“Is it really the opinion of the experts or is it the politician who enters? It’s hard to sort out sometimes,” he said in an interview with Duty.
He believes that the acting national director of public health, Dr. Luc Boileau, should hold his own press conferences, without the presence of Prime Minister François Legault or Minister of Health Christian Dubé.
“For the first few months it was adequate, it reassured everyone to have the Prime Minister continually to take stock, to have public health experts right next door,” he said. Perhaps after a few months, it would have been correct to say that we may not necessarily need this model. And there could be separate press conferences on the side of public health experts and the political side. »
In office since September 2011, Mr. Quirion represents the interests of science and research on numerous forums in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere in the world.
Separated from the function of deputy minister?
Once the pandemic has passed, Mr. Quirion believes that we will have to consider ways to sustainably improve the independence of the position of national director of public health, who also exercises the function of assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Health.
“In some regions of the world, the direction of public health is not a position of deputy minister, it is a position outside the government, from the Ministry of Health, underlines the chief scientist. It could perhaps facilitate this distance. You have to have very good links with politics when you are director of public health. At the same time keep a distance. »
Over the past few weeks, several calls have been heard for greater independence in public health.
Last week, the Commissioner of Health and Welfare, Joanne Castonguay recommended that the government give the national director of public health the power to inform the public independently and to communicate his opinions and recommendations in a transparent manner. .
The College of Physicians has also called for more independence for the holder of the post, to which Dr Boileau, successor to Horacio Arruda, has just been appointed.
In addition, Mr. Quirion expressed reservations about the effectiveness of the financial contribution that Mr. Legault wants to impose on the non-vaccinated.
“The impact is probably going to be relatively small depending on how long it takes to develop the way of doing things,” he says. It’s probably not easy to set up this kind of tax. The devil is in the details. »
More details will follow.