DELFRAISSY. President of the Scientific Council which advised the government during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jean-François Delfraissy was heard by the Court of Justice of the Republic, questioned in particular on masks. The professor did not mince his words.
More than two years later, these are revelations which should not stem the distrust experienced by the government in its management of the Covid-19 pandemic in France. Friday July 22, 2022, Point reveals part of the content of the hearings before the Court of Justice of the Republic of Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council who advised the very closed circle at the top of the Republic responsible for making decisions related to the pandemic. The CJR is investigating as part of a judicial investigation for “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster” and “endangering the lives of others”, which led to the indictment of Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Health when the pandemic has declared itself. To carry out its investigations, the CJR therefore interviewed many personalities linked to the measures introduced in France to deal with the virus, including Jean-François Delfraissy. And his explanations on the shortage of masks have something to think about.
The shortage of masks hidden at the Scientific Council?
According to hearing elements collected by Point, Jean-François Delfraissy and the Scientific Council would not have immediately made aware of the shortage of masks facing the country, despite internal alerts on the side of the Elysée several weeks earlier. In mid-March, when the Scientific Council was created, a few days before confinement, “we perhaps tackled the problem of masks a little far, because other subjects were priorities in the short term” said – he explains before the judges of the Court of Justice of the Republic, even if he recognized that a person – without naming him -, during a meeting, would have announced the availability of a ” very limited number of masks”. The shortage of protection would therefore not have been clearly mentioned, even in the sacrosanct crisis unit which managed the rise of the Covid.
It was only later, once the containment was established, that Jean-François Delfraissy and the Scientific Council would have been made aware of the situation. “We had the information on the masks around March 23-25. The idea was that we were on a limited number of masks”, he recalled in front of the CJR, assuring that his organization “av[ait] said that they should be reserved for health personnel as a priority.”
However, this recommendation is not followed by the government, which does not call for the compulsory wearing of a mask in order to curb the spread of Covid-19, which nevertheless backpedaled a few weeks later, even making it compulsory for several months. . For Jean-François Delfraissy, this was not the right strategy. “I did not quite understand why, at the political level and at the communication level, they were not telling the reality, that is to say that there was a limited number of masks and that, given the confinement, they had to be reserved for health personnel and that over time we would extend the use of masks to the population both for self-protection and, when we knew it, to protect others. I think that would have could be clearer”, he replied before the judges of the CJR. During this same hearing, Jean-François Delfraissy deplored “insufficient preparation by the authorities”, before stinging: “we were not sufficiently ready for a pandemic of this importance.”