“On the masks, we were wrong”, admits Olivier Véran, referring to the start of the Covid-19 epidemic – Le Monde

More than two years after the arrival of Covid-19 in France, Olivier Véran looks back on how he experienced the health crisis in an interview with Le Parisien, on the occasion of the publication of his book Beyond the Waves ( Robert Laffont editions). The former Minister of Health, who has become government spokesperson, expresses some regret: “Part of the public criticized us for having knowingly lied about the masks, to hide the shortage”, recalls Olivier Véran, who assures: “That is not the case. The truth is that, on the masks, we were wrong, neither more nor less. We WHO [Organisation mondiale de la santé] and international health authorities. In good faith, of course, but we were wrong. Moreover, “this book is also an opportunity to apologize,” he says. In March 2020, as the Covid-19 epidemic swept through France, the health authorities deemed it “useless” to extend the wearing of masks to the entire population. At the same time, France lacked masks: reserves had fallen from almost 2 billion units (surgical masks and FFP2) in 2009 to 100 million on the eve of the health crisis. A shortage which was then the subject of a controversy. Read also Clear ideas on Covid-19: masks He also admits the absurdity of certain measures imposed during the first confinement. “For example when we reopen restaurant terraces by requiring flower boxes or Plexiglas panels to separate the tables. But I also note that some neighboring countries that called us Absurdistan followed us in most cases. It makes you modest, crisis management…” Mr. Véran explains that he took up his pen on the evening of the announcement of the first confinement to “remember later the emotion of the moment”, without imagining the magnitude that was going to take. the crisis or knowing that he was going to make a book out of it. He also confides that he “touched the burnout”. In 2020, at the end of the first wave, “I had dizziness, deep nausea, my legs were throbbing”, he reports, explaining that he was then sleeping “three hours a night”, jumping from meals and was under “permanent stress”. At the roots of the French health crisis, a series in five episodes “Le Monde” revisits the national strategy in terms of the epidemic for twenty years. A way to better understand, unpublished documents and testimonials in support, the current controversies. The World with AFP