“The beginning of the year will not be different 2020. Let’s hold on tight!” Here is the message from the Scientific Committee president this Tuesday December 15 as the second phase of lockdown exit is starting. For a few days now, markers of the Covid-19 epidemic have not been evolving and are sticking to very worrying proportions – a bit over 10,000 new cases per day.
Interviewed by Le Parisien, the immunologist doctor rather prepares people to a third wave and urges the country to remain cautious at any time. Is a third wave to be feared? “This risk is not negligeable, but we shall avoid it” the doctor says. “Could this resurgence occur by mid-January or later? The answer is yes, the pattern has not changed, the virus will keep on spreading over the course of winter” he warns.
He says the epidemic is not to begin again “before January 10th”. On that matter, scientists’ work and equanimity are disturbed by the mutation risks. He says “softening measures enabled to move more people leading to contaminations, even though the French are complying with the rules well. The entire Europe is impacted. Let’s leave this French vision where one’s is permanently self-flagellating” he insists on.
At the same time, the prospect of vaccine shall not be a pass toward freedom, he says. Or at least, not yet. “The arrival of vaccines will have no an impact during the first quarter of 2021 and very little during the second.” he warns. He also says it is vital to remain cautious and vigilant “for three to six more months”. He is glad: “Science is moving forward, in silence, but it is”.
