FIGAROVOX / INTERVIEW – London did not identify any patient who died from Covid last Sunday. For essayist Nicolas Bouzou, this good news is explained by the pragmatic vaccination strategy of the United Kingdom, which applied the precautionary principle against the virus, unlike the European Union, which opposed it to the vaccine.
Nicolas Bouzou is founder of the Asterès consulting firm and essayist. He just publishedhuman health (Xo editions, 2021).
FIGAROVOX.-No deaths were recorded in London on Sunday concerning the Covid. Is this a victory against the virus?
Nicolas BOUZOU.-Beyond the symbol, it is the victory of science and innovation. The UK used two vaccines, a Pfizer messenger RNA, which is extraordinarily effective with few side effects, and AstraZeneca Oxford.
About a year after the start of the epidemic, humans have demonstrated their ability to bring high-performance vaccines against the virus to the market and to set up an organization to fight the epidemic with great success. We will have to wait for the next few weeks because the fight against the epidemic, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, has not been won for several reasons: There are still many people to be vaccinated, should it be necessary to vaccinate adolescents and children?
Finally, new vaccine-insensitive variants may emerge. However, this is an outcome which is absolutely fantastic for our civilization. The year which has just passed, to show on the one hand, that it is possible to put the health of individuals in priority before the economy, and on the other hand, that it is possible, with the Extraordinary scientific knowledge accumulated over recent years, to produce a vaccine against a virus still unknown 18 months ago.
British governments have taken the decision to lock not only the purchases of these vaccines, but also their production, as soon as the order is placed.
The British resorted to strict containment and mass vaccination. How to explain such a vaccination capacity?
There is already, in my opinion, a cultural question. The British considered themselves to be at war. Emmanuel Macron, of course, also said it a year ago, but they are following this declaration of concrete actions.
From the moment when the British leaders understood that vaccines would be available, they made the decision to lock not only the purchases of these vaccines, but also their production and this, from the order. From the moment Astrazenica claimed to be able to produce an effective vaccine, they applied the precautionary principle not to the vaccine but to the virus, even in the presence of potential side effects.
The European Union, for its part, applied the precautionary principle against the vaccine, and in particular against AstraZeneca, the use of which was suspended for a few days, in a number of countries, notably France.
Read also : Thierry Breton or the alarming defense of the European vaccine strategy
The British applied the precautionary principle against the virus for pragmatic and common sense reasons. It was the most serious health crisis for 100 years and the most difficult economic crisis for 80 years, it was therefore necessary for them, to do everything possible to fight an enemy that was causing terrible consequences on our societies.
They were also able to condition the purchases of vaccines for production on their soil, which was facilitated by AstraZeneca which is a British laboratory. Their vaccine also comes from the University of Oxford.
The prestigious English universities are very efficient research centers in the field of infectious diseases. The breeding ground was therefore favorable and the behavior of the British authorities made it possible to secure, very early on, the supply and production of vaccines.
the European Union has failed by paying too much attention to the price of vaccines and refusing to release pharmaceutical companies from the risk of side effects.
There is a big gap between the British and the rest of Europe in the vaccination campaign. Should the European Union question itself?
The European Union faces a real problem of credibility. The leitmotif of the Union, in particular of Ursula Von der Leyen, is “the EU to manage the vaccination campaign well“… However, it is not the case.
However, it is possible to support the idea that if France had ordered its vaccines on its own, it would be in an even worse situation today for two reasons: the ministry of health is very disorganized and I doubt it. be able to have the logistics necessary to purchase vaccines.
Read also :Vaccine campaign: “Once again, the European Union is another name for our collective disarmament”
Today, we do not have messenger RNA vaccine production units in France, we are in the process of building them. So we wouldn’t have been able to produce vaccines.
But the European Union failed, by paying too much attention to the price of vaccines, then refusing to release pharmaceutical companies from the risk of side effects. She also found herself unable to make funds available to produce vaccines. The delay is approximately 6 weeks and we pay it today.
If we reach this objective of 500,000 people per day, without new variants or bad surprises, collective immunity will be acquired this summer and in September this crisis will be behind us.
Just compare the health situations in France and England, we are in two completely different worlds. We are in a catastrophic health situation. The incidence rates in Île-de-France are very high. Every day, between 0.5% and 1% of the Ile-de-France population is infected with Covid. In addition, the economic consequences are dramatic with all locations closed as the UK reopens on solid foundations.
What can we hope for in the coming weeks?
Many vaccines will arrive at the beginning of April and France will be able to produce them in significant quantities. A plentiful supply of doses will be available from May.
I appeal to the Ministry of Health: we must organize ourselves to vaccinate in May, 500,000 people per day. I solemnly ask the minister. We vaccinated 80,000 people on Sunday, which is not enough.
The current average is between 200 and 250,000 people vaccinated per day. It is encouraging but the pace will have to accelerate further in the coming weeks. Americans today vaccinate 1% of their population daily.
If we reach this objective of 500,000 people per day, without new variants or bad surprises, collective immunity will be acquired this summer and in September this crisis will be behind us.
– .
