Constrain more, but for what efficiency?
In his televised intervention on Tuesday evening, Emmanuel Macron drew the outlines of a more severe strategy towards people sick with Covid-19.
The Head of State, however, did not address the "how", leaving parliamentarians to debate and provide "the conditions to ensure the isolation" of positive cases, or the "why" of the health interest of more severe measures.
The forced isolation of infected people is justified, as a health weapon against the virus, if it is first effective.
More and more doctors are asking for it.
“There is no isolation today in practice, was surprised a few days ago in the columns of the newspaper Le Monde Philippe Juvin, head of emergencies at the Parisian hospital Georges-Pompidou.
There is no point in testing millions of French people if it is to then send them home when they are positive and infect those around them ”.
"It's violent but very effective"
Hence the idea, defended by Dr Juvin but also by the president of the LR group in the Senate Bruno Retailleau, of returning to the obligation to place people who test positive in a place other than their home - in hotels for example. - as had been experienced during the first wave of the epidemic at the start of the year.
Dimitri Lavillette, virology researcher, can attest to the effectiveness of compulsory isolation, he who has been seconded since 2014 to the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai in China to work on a future vaccine.
“Here, the patients were installed in hotels or gymnasiums fitted out as soon as the epidemic appeared at the beginning of the year.
They also had the option of staying at home, but in this case all people living in their homes were also strictly confined for fourteen days.
It is violent but very effective from an epidemic point of view since the virus has been under control for months and we have now lived without wearing a mask since May.
"
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Is such severity possible in France?
"It is justified from a strictly epidemiological point of view," continues Dimitri Lavillette.
But it was possible because respect for individual freedoms is much weaker in China than in Western countries.
At the same time, it is first and foremost collective discipline which has made it possible to obtain similar results and avoid a second wave in Japan or South Korea for example.
"
How far, then, to push the cursor of the constraint?
The Head of State did not wish to mention possible sanctions or fines, nor to speak of "compulsory isolation" while the Agir group (an ally of LREM) in the National Assembly recently proposed to add fines of 10,000 euros - before revising this amount to 1,500 euros (3,700 euros in the event of a repeat offense) - failure to comply with a mandatory quarantine in the event of a positive control.
"Incite without frightening"
At the Ministry of Health, we are tearing our hair out to find the most balanced formula… and the most acceptable by the majority of the population.
"The subject indeed deserves a lot of attention and several days of reflection," says one in the entourage of Olivier Véran.
This is a strong incentive to respect isolation without frightening.
We want to prevent people reluctant to be tested for fear of having to stay in isolation, while encouraging non-patients to be more careful and to respect barrier gestures and wearing a mask so as not to have to be isolated. in case of infection.
"
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Not to mention another concern that mobilizes within the ministry: the establishment of support for people who have to be isolated "materially, health and psychologically", as Emmanuel Macron called for it.
Again, it's all about balance.