Before the commission of inquiry, Agnès Buzyn struggles to convince

How did the mask inventory evaporate? Why this shortage of screening tests? Were the measures taken too late? In an attempt to answer these questions, four former health ministers will be heard this week by the National Assembly's committee of inquiry on the management of the coronavirus crisis. Starting this Tuesday, by Agnès Buzyn. "You can't say I didn't anticipate! , she chanted, obviously very moved. I never underestimated the risk. There is not a day when we have not anticipated in relation to the WHO and to international decisions. ”

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It was barely two days after her bitter defeat in the municipal elections in Paris that Agnes Buzyn found herself on the hot seat. Expected at the turn after leaving her post in mid-February, in the midst of an epidemic risk increase. The trembling voice, the former minister hesitates, bites her lips, searches for her words, apologizes and gets lost, many times, in her notes. It was "completely by chance" that she came across "a first alert, on Twitter, during the Christmas holidays: a blog in English reported cases of unexplained pneumonia". Therefore, she claims to have always been "in anticipation" : "around January 11, China announces its first death. I then decide to inform the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. " A long list of dates follows, in order to demonstrate that it launched the orders five weeks before the WHO sounded the alarm.

You cannot say that the order was not early. February 14th, there are 44 cases in Europe

"For me, the turning point is January 22, when we are told about human -to- human transmission, " she recalls. But I did my first press conference the day before. ” On January 24, the first three cases are known in France. She immediately asked for "an inventory of all stocks and our capacity to care for the sick" . And, the next day, contact the health authorities to prepare for "a possible epidemic". "I decided on January 28 to build a state stock of FFP2 masks because there are none," she continues. The doctrine of 2011 puts the responsibility for FFP2 masks back to employers, hospitals and the self-employed. I say to myself: "Better to order without knowing what the field needs are."

The order for a million masks left on January 30. While the “inventory management” of masks, she underlines, “does not belong to the minister” . It is therefore "with the feeling of having made the right preparation" that Agnès Buzyn leaves the Ministry of Health on February 16, giving way to Olivier Véran. "You cannot say that the order was not early," she defends herself. On February 14, there are 44 cases in Europe. ”

See also - Before the National Assembly, Agnès Buzyn defends her management of the Covid-19 crisis

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Strategic stocks

She claims to have discovered "in the archives (which she has recovered) this week" that the Directorate General of Health (DGS) had "realized in 2018" that "a lot of things" , including the masks, were expired. "In 2018, the vigilance that I must have is not just about masks, she says, but about dozens of products, such as iodine tablets in the event of a nuclear accident. My attention was focused on all of the strategic stocks. ” In 2010, the strategic state stock of surgical masks amounted to 1 billion, and 700 million FFP2 masks, Didier Houssin, DGS from 2005 to 2011 indicated on June 24, but by the beginning of 2020, this stock had reduced to 117 million surgical masks for adults, 40 million pediatric masks, and no more reserves of FFP2.

See also - Agnès Buzyn explains about the management of mask stocks before the epidemic

Covid-19: Agnès Buzyn explains about the management of mask stocks before the epidemic - Watch on Figaro Live

For the past two weeks, the commission of inquiry has heard from all the DGSs from the period 2003 to 2011. Agnès Buzyn will be followed this Wednesday by former ministers Marisol Touraine and Roselyne Bachelot, before Xavier Bertrand on Thursday. The work of deputies will coexist with that of the Senate, which voted on Tuesday for the creation of its own commission of inquiry, as well as with the "independent national mission" of evaluation, installed Thursday by Emmanuel Macron and chaired by the Swiss infectious disease specialist Didier Pittet.