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A public health doctor who has become an expert on the Covid-19 pandemic, widely solicited by the media, Martin Blachier is today publishing his book “Méga gâchis secret history of the pandemic” with Editions du Cerf. Through his account of these two crazy years, he alerts us to the functioning of our country and the changes to be made.
Doctissimo: You are very critical of the management of the pandemic. What are the main mistakes made?
Martin Blachier: The main mistakes, with hindsight, are the confinements, which were far too strict. The second error was to want to vaccinate everyone, without considering that there was a vulnerable population and a non-vulnerable population. Finally, the aerosolization of this virus was considered too late, partly because we put hygienist experts on the subject, who sprayed us with hydroalcoholic gel, but did not take into account the dispersion in the air of the virus.
Martin Blachier: I think we should have made less severe confinements and limited ourselves to places where the virus spreads a lot: bars, restaurants, brewing places. Confining the entire population as it may have been, it was too much. It would have taken some strong measures only for a few strategic places, but not to go further. Ditto for vaccinations. It would have been necessary to direct the vaccination strategy on the population at risk from the summer of 2021. And let the children continue to follow their school course and go to school normally, without change for them.
Martin Blachier: There was a monopolization of the media voice of certain experts, but each defended their institutional positions, whether general practitioners, hospital workers, unions, etc. There were a few experts who provided real expertise, for the rest. t was many commentators who came with a clear angle: defend the hospital, save the emergency room, do more tests… But I nevertheless salute the role of the media in this crisis: they were sometimes able to counterbalance the absolute power that s grant the mandarins, these doctors who feel above all.
Do you think lessons will be learned from this pandemic?
Martin Blachier: I hope so. For the moment nothing has changed. Beyond the pandemic, there is an urgent need to take into account the discomfort of health professionals. The management at the hospital is bad, people leave because they are not happy there. In liberal, that does not work either, the exercise is too free and too isolated. In terms of public health, progress needs to be made in terms of the knowledge of the population. We must get out of this need to consult a doctor systematically, to prescribe examinations without a specific purpose. It is necessary to take care when it is necessary to take care of and not to take care of when it is useless. Today, a general practitioner has consultations all day, half of which are useless. Whereas the person who really needs to see it won’t have room. We must get out of this overpriced system, with unequal access to care, unhappy caregivers and irrelevant care. We need to modernize the vision of our healthcare system.
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If there was one thing that needed to be changed, what would it be?
Martin Blachier: For me, we have to work on improving the relevance of care. Let’s stop unnecessary exams, it’s valid in town as well as in the hospital. We are pushing for the consumption of care, we must change mentalities and give caregivers a taste for exercise.
