Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced this Saturday March 14 the activation of phase 3: places welcoming the public, except those considered “essential”, are closed until further notice, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
For Mylène Ogliastro, a researcher at INRA in Montpellier and representative of the French Society of Virology, the government “is not doing too much” in the face of the disease which has, to date, killed 91 people in France.
These measures aimed at limiting social interactions and transport as much as possible are fully justified. And, combined with regular hand washing, they are the only ones that can slow the progression of the epidemics. If they had been taken earlier, it would have been even better.
The scientist also confirms that it is essential to confine children. “Infected children may have little or no symptoms at all. But they are able to transmit the disease. With the closure of schools, care should not be taken of their grandparents or other frail people. . “
How was this virus born?
The virus “SARS-CoV-2” (“COVID-19” is the name of the disease it causes) is part of the same family as “SARS-CoV-1”, which had circulated in Asia and in several European countries in 2002. Out of 8000 reported cases, SARS-CoV-1 had killed 800 people, then the epidemic had died out.
“Viruses have been around since there has been life on Earth,” says Mylène Ogliastro. “They infect all living things, animals, plants and even beetles. If certain viruses, such as SARS, HIV or Ebola, cause very worrying human epidemics, certain viruses can be beneficial. They can help us, for example, to fight infectious diseases. “
As the researcher specifies, viruses of the coronavirus family circulate in wild animals such as bats, giraffes, snakes and even pangolins. Like SARS-Cov-1, SARS-Cov-2 is very similar to a virus found in bats, from which it probably originated.
Like all living organisms, these viruses evolve, through mutations, recombinations. These changes, in most cases, eliminate the virus. In other cases, they can allow it to infect a new animal or man. These changes are happening all the time.
Can there be other epidemics in the future?
For the researcher, there is no doubt: we could be faced with new epidemics, even pandemics.
We are going to come across new viruses. Today, environmental issues, global warming and the loss of biodiversity must be considered as one and the same problem. Finally, we must realize that human health depends entirely on that of his environment.
According to her, the words of scientists must be taken into account by political decision-makers.
“In any case, I am delighted that a scientific council has been set up and that the government has listened to its advice. I hope that the COVID-19 pandemic that we are experiencing today will make us aware of the need to ‘invest in scientific research, if only because’ to prevent is to cure ‘. Now we have to learn from this crisis and understand that it will only be solved collegially and with the help of scientists. “
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