The deputy and doctor Olivier Véran succeeded Agnès Buzyn on Monday. The new Minister of Health has assured that the coronavirus epidemic "remains" the priority of the ministry.
Monday morning, he usually wears his white neurologist coat. But this morning, Doctor Olivier Véran did not ensure his consultation at the Grenoble University Hospital (Isère). Instead, in a gray jacket and burgundy tie, at the age of 39 he became the successor of Agnes Buzyn - who left to replace Bob Griveaux in the municipal battle in Paris - at the Ministry of Solidarity and Health. A new complex costume to put on, as the grumbling in the public hospital keeps swelling and the spread of viral pneumonia continues to shake the world. It was this exceptional situation that caused a rain of criticism to fall on Agnes Buzyn, accused by some of abandoning the ship in the middle of a storm.
So, this Monday, we had to show that the situation was under control. It is no coincidence that one of the first words spoken in the morning by Olivier Véran was ... "coronavirus". His epidemic remains "the number 1 priority of the Ministry of Health", insists his new tenant, promising that he would communicate "all the information he (he) will have." "
He is now on the front line
Before an audience of journalists and dozens of agents of the ministry, the former deputy also did not forget to recall that he had visited, eight days earlier, the infectious diseases department of the Grenoble hospital. It was here that a British father and his nine-year-old son (the child is now cured), contaminated by the Contamines-Montjoie virus, were hospitalized, like three other people as a precaution. In the photos taken that Sunday, MP Véran is placed just behind Minister Buzyn. A week later, he is now on the front line.
After his first words, it was therefore to the coronavirus that he devoted his first field trip. Meet at 7:30 p.m. this same Monday at the Parisian hospital Bichat, one of the most advanced in the fight against infectious diseases. There, Olivier Véran visited the patient's daughter, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist, who died on Thursday evening. She is cured and should be released from the hospital very soon. "My role as minister is to meet the patients and the teams who have been providing quality care for three weeks," says Olivier Véran.
Another evening announcement: a second case of coronavirus was confirmed on a Frenchman on board the cruise ship "Diamond Princess". However, for the moment no request for repatriation has been sent. If this were the case, the authorities would do the necessary.
"That the minister changes is not very serious for that!"
Will this mobilization be sufficient to make public opinion, worried by the situation, forget about the change of captain on avenue Duquesne? “Fortunately, since the H1N1 episode of 2009, the management of this type of health crisis does not depend exclusively on the ministry. The one that has a key role is the Directorate General of Health (DGS) which manages the strategy and organization of care. That the Minister changes is, for this, not very serious! "Emphasizes the health historian, epidemic specialist, Patrick Zylberman.
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"There is indeed for the coronavirus a technical and internationalized dimension", abounds Emmanuelle Fillion. What could change the game, according to the health sociologist, are "more political questions", like the explosive case of the public hospital. "But nothing for the moment indicates that there could be an in-depth break with Olivier Véran with what has been undertaken before," she notes. On this point, the young minister announced Monday launching a "national inquiry" to grasp the reasons for the "malaise" of the hospital.