Éric Verhaeghe is the founder of Tripalio, a start-up on union life. A former student of ENA, he has held positions in the business world and assumed various joint mandates. He was notably administrator of social security. He is the author of Do not help you and the State will help you (Éditions du Rocher, 2016).
The Prime Minister mentioned a possible reconfinement yesterday on a television channel after taking brutal measures in Marseille.
The deterioration of the health situation in France is almost unique in Europe.
No lesson seems to have been drawn from the first confinement, nor from the failures committed by the health bureaucracy on this occasion.
The rising tension in the country once again illustrates the urgency of a profound reform of the State.
The idea of re-containment, which seemed abstract at the start of summer, suddenly takes shape and takes shape with astonishing vigor.
The brutal decision to severely restrict social exchanges in Marseille foreshadows what awaits other French regions.
And the reactions of the people of Marseille, elected officials included, give the government a first idea of the exasperation of the French vis-à-vis a chaotic and deceptive management of the crisis.
Reconfinement, what had to be avoided at all costs ...
If we look back six months, the prospect of re-containment takes on its stinging dimension.
The parliamentary committees of inquiry which received the various officials at work at that time pointed out the inconsistencies, blind spots, folds in public decisions that led France to tackle the epidemic by having conscientiously stripped of its stock of existing masks.
No administrative sanction has been taken, and the director general of health who ordered the destruction of the masks without diligent replenishment of stocks is still in post.
One could nevertheless imagine that the alert had been serious enough to avoid a new administrative torpor.
The reactions of the people of Marseille, elected officials included, give the government a first idea of the exasperation of the French vis-à-vis a chaotic and deceptive management of the crisis.
We remember here that the administration, which had emptied the stocks of masks, had also limited access to tests, in particular by preventing private laboratories from carrying them out.
In general, hospital equipment has been systematically underestimated and the centralization of decisions within a few offices has greatly slowed down the fight against the disease.
With deconfinement, promises were heard by the French: those of a "never again", those of a takeover of the administration, those of active prevention against a new wave, in particular thanks to a massive investment in testing, and through the widespread use of masks.
The sinking of a strategy
Once again, the French have been able to verify that there is often a long way to go, and that the distance between political announcements and their concrete implementation by the State services can sometimes turn out to be interstate. .
However, all summer, the government has been "teaching" on the need to prevent contagion by wearing his mask as much as possible and being tested in the slightest doubt.
Many have criticized the government for its strategy of irrational fear.
Putting the “pedagogy” into practice has turned out to be disastrous.
We had to limit contacts, but the Heritage Days or Roland-Garros still took place.
Some parties or parties were forbidden, but not others.
No one has really understood the meaning of these measures.
Three days of waiting for the examination, then three days of waiting to have access to the results, sometimes even four days.
This slowness gave time for many contagions to take hold.
Above all, it is the testing strategy that appears to be completely bankrupt.
While the PCR test is unwieldy and very off-putting for the discomfort it provides, the Department of Health does not appear to have done any diligence in promoting other types of testing, including blood tests which do not appear to be sponsored by any. large laboratory, or saliva tests, the marketing of which is incredibly slow.
Hence this test strategy, the backbone of our preventive strategy, which drowned in delays in accessing tests, then in the results of these tests, the rout of which is well known today: three days of waiting for the exam, then waiting three days to access the results, sometimes even four days.
This slowness gave time for many contagions to take hold.
The result is in any case dazzling: despite all government precautions, the virus now seems to be circulating as quickly as before confinement ...
A necessary and urgent reform of the State
In practice, France has given itself the means to prevent the spread of the virus this summer.
It was not a question of budget, nor of personnel, nor of unavailable material.
We had everything it took to be successful, and yet we fail.
The failure is due to the same causes as in the spring.
The red tape, the slowness, the administrative rigors have struck once again, and everything shows that they are a problem of mentality and not of money.
Our (more or less senior) officials have a problem with the culture of control and efficiency.
They struggle to decentralize decisions, but are seldom able to make the right ones themselves within acceptable timeframes.
The failure is due to the same causes as in the spring.
The red tape, the slowness, the administrative rigors have struck once again, and everything shows that they are a problem of mentality and not of money.
Let us repeat it: the question of saliva tests, much more manageable and simple to analyze than PCR tests, is emblematic of this incorrigible administrative paralysis à la française.
While these saliva tests have been available since April, Olivier Véran had to fight this summer for Public Assistance in Paris to find fifty testers.
Finally, the expert committee of the Haute Autorité de Santé validated them in early August, but they are still not available.
And yet, the alarming blockages in PCR testing were known to all.
If there was a reason to reform the state without weakening, this single example gives it.
