While the end of the year celebrations are fast approaching, for Benjamin Clouzeau, intensive care doctor, the third wave of coronavirus is already present in hospitals.
Spotted in an article from actu.fr, from December 17, Benjamin Clouzeau, resuscitation doctor at Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde), explains that he has seen a semblance of a third wave of the coronavirus in recent days. "We have not finished closing the second wave – we still have patients hospitalized at three or four weeks of intensive care – that we are already starting to see the third wave arrive, says the health specialist. (…) since December 10, we have started intubating new patients. The third wave is already there, but it will pass into the continuum of the second since the decline has not taken place. " Tired of the rebound in admissions of Covid patients in intensive care, the doctor says he feels that "People feel untouchable. However, this week we have just – for example – intubated a 49-year-old man. I don't quite understand the human. Well, I am at this stage! We will say that it it's just a passing tiredness. "
"The holidays are going to be a breeding ground for contamination"
A little demoralized, the intensive care doctor announced to actu.fr that "the holidays are going to be a nest of contamination". According to him, the French should understand that clear measures must be taken during the various meals, even if he admits that it is socially difficult to prohibit celebrating Christmas. "There will be occasions other than Christmas to get together as a family", he tries to make people understand. However, Benjamin Clouzeau remains hopeful about 2021: "I still have the impression that people will be careful a week before going to see their loved ones at Christmas. It is a bit my hope! Attend a kind of self-containment which will limit family contaminations a little. "https://www.aufeminin.com/"After, for New Years Day, however, I think it will be big nonsense", he adds. For Benjamin Clouzeau, the curfew does not make sense since it will encourage people to stay with each other. "It's not going to deter reunions and end-of-year parties at all. I expect a massive wave of hospitalizations two weeks after New Year's Day!", comments the doctor.
Read also: Coronavirus: still 3 to 6 months to go, according to Professor Delfraissy
What to expect from 2021?
What about the arrival of the new year? A possible way out of this virus or an eternal restart? According to Simon Cauchemez, epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur, for FranceInfo, the level of immunity is insufficient to see the coronavirus disappear. "As long as there is not a sufficient level of immunity, the virus will continue to circulate. We believe that it will stop with 50 to 70% of the population immune. But we are still very far from it", he said. Also, negative temperatures will not help. "Probably because this virus is linked to the climate and the cold snap favored its 'recirculation' https://www.aufeminin.com/", specifies Professor Jean-François Delfraissy at Parisian. At the level of the government the doubt is also palpable, thus the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, during the press conference of December 10, recalled that the Christmas Eve of December 31 "concentrates all the ingredients for an epidemic rebound." Regarding the vaccine, the campaign will start "from the last week of December" if"the conditions are right", "before ramping up in January", detailed Jean Castex. However, the effects of vaccination will not be "not visible before summer 2021", reminds Parisian Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of the Scientific Council.