[ad_1]
Short URL
While Europe is experiencing its second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the question of massive screening of the French still arises. Its supporters refer to the successful experience of other countries while its detractors do not consider it necessary given the containment and sanitation measures already in place.
Faced with the second wave of pandemic that is affecting all of Europe, several doctors and politicians recommend a massive screening of the French.
“Screening of 67 million people would make up for the lack of data on the epidemic in view of its decline,” Professor Philippe Amouyel told France Inter on 16 November.
As an argument, proponents of mass screening cite the experience of several states including China testing Wuhan’s 11 million people last winter and Hong Kong testing 1.8 million people.
These regions have chosen the “pooling” strategy aiming to test a mixture of several samples taken, ie in case of positive test in the lot, all the samples are tested one by one to isolate the positive case, Huffington indicates Post.
Screening by antigen tests
As for Europe, several countries such as Slovakia have launched antigen testing campaigns that involve a quick test, twice, one week apart.
Jean-François Rupprecht, CNRS researcher and collaborator of the Adioscorona association, supporter of massive population screening, told the Huffington Post that the “pooling” technique would be the most effective.
“If we applied it in France, we could reduce the circulation of the virus to 5,000 cases per day, approximately, as Emmanuel Macron wanted during his speech on October 28. The method has proven its effectiveness in New York universities (400,000 students) , which have managed to drastically reduce the circulation of the virus thanks to pooling screening, ”he explained.
Is the “pooling” technique useless?
Daniel Dunia, CNRS researcher at the Center for Pathophysiology (CPTP) in Toulouse Purpan, described this technique to the Huffington Post as “useless”: “We have a virus circulation rate too high to be effective. This would mean that all “lots” would be positive since many French are contaminated “.
Other doctors are urging the use of antigen tests for population screening in France. However, according to the Alta Autorité de santé here too, the risk of false negatives is high, because the reliability reaches 80%.
“A negative test will reassure patients that they are indeed infected and that they will infect other people,” Franck Perez, CNRS researcher and director of the cancer cell biology laboratory, told the Huffington Post.
“What is the interest of mass screening?”
Asked by the Huffington Post, Jacqueline Marvel, an immunologist who specializes in testing against Covid-19, sees no interest in massive testing campaigns.
“This would slow the epidemic before it starts again. But we’re already getting there with containment and current health measures, so what’s the purpose of massive screening? “, He explains.
Furthermore, given the limitations presented by massive screening, several researchers call for mobilizing efforts in highly contaminated places, or in regions in particular, such as President Les Républicains d’Auvergne-Rhône Alpes who announced the intention to organize a massive free test campaign for the eight million inhabitants of his region.
“It’s a great idea to do it regionally. Focusing forces on a particular region is much more achievable and will inevitably have a national impact. You need to find the virus where it circulates the most and monitor people at risk by carrying out screening campaigns in nursing homes, for example, “suggests Daniel Dunia.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
