6Medias, published on Sunday March 01, 2020 at 1:11 p.m.
Professor William Dab, epidemiologist and former director general of health, estimates that “five to ten million people” could be affected by the coronavirus in France. While considering that we should not be afraid.
Former Director General of Health, William Dab knows what it’s like to be on the front line when a health problem affects the country. But it is now with an outside look at the coronavirus crisis that the professor confided in the Sunday Journal. In an interview published on March 1, the epidemiologist said that the “worst case scenario” could not be excluded.
While authorities took a number of preventive measures on Saturday February 29, such as banning all rallies where more than 5,000 people are confined, William Dab makes his diagnosis.
“No country can treat so many intensive care patients at the same time”
“We were very lucky during the mad cow crisis, the SARS and the H1N1 epidemic“, he details in the Journal du Dimanche.”We may have it again this time. The door must be left open to all hypotheses. But the most likely is that we are going to know an influenza-like epidemic, against which we do not have a vaccine“According to the epidemiologist, time is playing in our favor, however.”We can hope that the spring heat will slow its spread, because very few countries are currently affected in the southern hemisphere “, he specifies.
William Dab is also reassuring about the ability of hospitals to respond to the epidemic: “They are ready, “he decides. Even if, in the event that the crisis becomes more severe, the hospital staff would inevitably need reinforcements.” The town doctors will have to go up in the first linee “, explains the epidemiologist, still in the columns of the Journal du Dimanche.”This virus causes between 5 and 10% of severe forms. It could affect, at home, 5 to 10 million people. No country can treat so many resuscitation patients at the same time. “
“Fear is useless”
Alarmist comments that William Dab himself tempered in the rest of the interview. Because, according to him, the Hexagon has serious assets such as a crisis cell that works well, effective surveillance tools or the presence of antennas of the Public Health agency France (relay of the Ministry of Health in the Province) In every region. All these factors lead the former Director General of Health to ask the population to remain calm. “It is worrying, of course. Not only is fear useless, but it paralyzes us. “
An infographic published by the Journal du dimanche goes in this direction. With less than 3% of deaths among people with the disease, the coronavirus is indeed presented as a much less dangerous disease than avian flu (60% of deaths), Ebola (50%), smallpox (30% ) or cholera (3.2%).
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