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The report, which is the product of a number of months value of hearings and investigations by a Senate fee of inquiry, additionally accuses Jérôme Salomon, a senior well being official, of making an attempt to cowl up the alleged misstep.
Salomon leads the nation’s General Directorate for Health, which types and executes well being coverage. The company has defended his actions and denied any wrongdoing.
The report accuses Salomon of ordering a stockpile of solely 100 million surgical masks two years in the past, regardless of suggestions from an unbiased committee of public well being specialists that the nation hold 1 billion readily available within the occasion of an emergency.
The report included emails equipped by Salomon, which it claims present that he “intervened directly” in an try to push the committee to modify its masks stockpile suggestions memo. It additionally alleged that the publicly accessible model of these suggestions was modified from the preliminary model.
In a press release launched Thursday night time, the General Directorate for Health denied that Salomon had exerted any undue strain on the unbiased committee concerning its PPE stockpile suggestions.
It additionally stated that Salomon had been utterly clear — pointing to the truth that he voluntarily offered his electronic mail exchanges with members of the fee.
“Discussions took place between the General Directorate for Health and France’s public health agency to make changes to the reports, exchanges that are part of a normal relationship between a public agency under supervision and its supervising authority within the framework of its missions,” the General Directorate for Health assertion stated.
The ensuing adjustments “were accepted by all contributors,” it stated.
Both the General Directorate for Health and France’s public well being company — which is in control of epidemiological surveillance — are a part of the French Health Ministry.
Senator Catherine Deroche, a member of the opposition conservative celebration who sat on the committee, stated the choice in 2018 proved expensive to French taxpayers.
France spent 450 million euros ($546 million) on masks this yr. Had they ordered the masks in 2018, when demand was down, it might have solely value 27 million euros ($33 million), in accordance to Deroche.
Deroche additionally alleged that Salomon ordered that 613 million masks that didn’t adjust to new well being requirements be destroyed “without referring to the political authorities” and “without even checking that supply capacities would be sufficient in the event of a crisis.”
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