AstraZeneca will deliver to Europe 9 million more doses than expected of its Covid vaccine, or 40 million doses in total. One way to strengthen the system deemed too weak on France Bleu by Julien Vassal, mayor of Lhorme and nurse anesthetist at the CHU.
France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire: What wins? The vision of the mayor who tells himself that his constituents will not crack with a new confinement or the practitioner who sees the difficulties of hospitals to cope with the epidemic?
Julien Vassal : It’s a mix of both. We see the morale of the French seriously at half mast with great uncertainty about the future. We don’t see the exit door. This is what bothers us as mayor because it imposes a lot of changes in the lives of our citizens and in the life of nurse anesthetists. We do not know what we will do at the end of the week, if we will reopen the Covid sheaves.
You accept this postponement of confinement, like the deputy for the Loire, Julien Borowczyk, who defended it on Saturday on our antenna on the grounds that the country is about to crack, economically and psychologically.
Psychologically I agree with him. Economically, I find it difficult to position myself. I see the aid granted, the debt that is igniting. I do not know exactly if all economic players are doing fair and equal across the country. The health and psychological side are more important to me because I see people who suffer more and more.
Is there still room for maneuver at the CHU? Are the existing blocks close to saturation?
Today the two intensive care units are saturated, as they usually are. All the beds are taken, not necessarily with Covid patients. We have the capacity to close the operating theaters, we did this for the first two waves, to transform all the operating theaters into an ephemeral Covid intensive care unit.
In a context of psychological wear and tear because it has been going on for a year today?
This is the concern. The nurses are French like the others. My colleagues work with two schedules. The first is obvious and the second is linked to a possible opening of the Covid sheave. They have to adapt their family life to suit. This is what must be understood. We have been in it for a year. The first time was a sprint. The second time we understood that it was going to be hot. This is the 3rd time but we do not see an exit door.
The way out is probably vaccination. You haven’t been vaccinated?
No because I am not over 50 years old. We only have 3000 doses of vaccines per week on the Loire! It’s mind-boggling, completely crazy. We are impatiently waiting for this but by the time everything arrives … We stop the vaccinations to be able to give the 2nd dose to the first to be vaccinated. We don’t have enough dose, nor the organization, to do both at the same time. The only way out is vaccination for everyone, but it will not be effective before May.
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