The Scientific Council, created in March 2020 to advise the government on its management of the epidemic of Covid-19, welcomes new faces. A decree, dated February 16, and published in the Official Journal on Wednesday February 17, announces the arrival of four new members, “Under the state of health emergency declared to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic”.
They are Catherine Chirouze, infectious disease specialist at the Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) in Besançon; Angele Consoli, child psychiatrist, who practices at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris; Olivier Guérin, geriatrician, president of the French Geriatric Society and Thierry Lefrançois, veterinarian.
Since its creation on March 11, 2020, the Scientific Council has had 13 members: its president, the immunologist Jean-François Delfraissy, the anthropologist Laëtitia Atlani Duault, the sociologist Daniel Benamouzig, the resuscitator Lila Bouadma, the modeler Simon Cauchemez, the doctor of public health Franck Chauvin, the general practitioner Pierre-Louis Druais, epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, ATD Quart-Monde president Marie-Aleth Grard, new technologies specialist Aymeril Hoang, virologist Bruno Lina, infectious disease specialist Denis Malvy and infectious disease specialist Yazdan Yazdanpanah.
With the exception of infectious diseases, the named professions were hitherto absent from the committee.
Analyze the disease in the youngest and the oldest
Specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Parisian hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière, Angèle Consoli should bring her perspective on the effect of confinement on the youngest, indicates BFM TV .
Head of the Gerontology Pole of the University Hospital of Nice and President of the French Society of Geriatrics, Olivier Guérin should look into the situation in the Ephad, still complicated despite the vaccination, continues BFM TV.
More classic profile, Catherine Chirouze, infectious disease specialist specializing in infectious and tropical pathology and head of department within the CHRU Jean-Minjoz in Besançon in the Doubs department, should offer other insights into the disease, via the studies it is conducting with Inserm.
Choosing a veterinarian
For the first time, a veterinarian is also included in this committee. Thierry Lefrançois is a “Specialist in integrated approaches and health networks at the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development”, according to a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture and Food, ” congratulates himself “ in this press release “The integration of veterinary expertise within the scientific council, making it possible to develop the interdisciplinary approach which is necessary both at national level and at European and international levels”.
I welcome the appointment of Thierry Lefrançois, veterinarian, to the Scientific Council #COVID19.
This approach #OneHealth is essential and makes it possible to take into account the interactions between humans, animals and the environment. https://t.co/fbDUUYynme
— Julien Denormandie (@J_Denormandie) February 17, 2021
The ministry supported and proposed this appointment since “The last decades have been marked by health crises which have often highlighted the interdependence between animals, humans and ecosystems. “
WHO, party to investigate the origins of the pandemic in China for a month, recently issued its first conclusions, which abound in this direction. Its experts said they still did not know which animal transmitted the virus to humans, but “The most probable hypothesis”, according to them, was indeed a transmission of the coronavirus from a first animal then a second before contamination to humans.
An instance balancing on a wire
In his last opinion made public, on January 13, the Scientific Council warned against the emergence of variants and called on the government to act to avoid the saturation of hospitals in the first quarter of 2021. It was entitled “Between vaccines and variants: a race against time”.
Deemed alarmist, often in disagreement with state directives, the body, chaired by Jean-François Delfraissy, has recently made waves.
The immunologist is discreet from the front page of Release January 26, titled “We are not close to a week”. Two days earlier, he exposed a more alarming situation on the set of BFM TV, talking about“Emergency” and presenting in a serious tone a third confinement as inevitable.
Rebalancing of too anxious discourse or reframing by the government? “The Scientific Council does not receive any instructions from politicians and I am known for my intellectual independence”, then wanted to clarify the 72-year-old doctor, in an email intended for health professionals, which landed on social networks.
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