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Coronavirus. The Ebola Lesson of Dr. Stefan Kowitz (European Medical Command)

(B2) Head of the European Medical Command, set up in 2018 within the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), to coordinate the efforts of the military medical services in the event of an EU or NATO operation, the Dr Stefan Kowitz, delivered, at the beginning of March, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an interesting point of view, drawing lessons from the previous crisis, that of Ebola.

A quick answer

The first lesson “the most important lesson to be learned from the Ebola crisis: the faster the response with all available resources, the better such an outbreak can be contained. ". This remark applies “not only to an Ebola epidemic” says our doctor.

And three methods

To reduce the epidemic, three elements are needed, says our brigadier general: "1. the isolation of infectious patients from the rest of the population, 2. the possibility of rapid diagnosis, 3. a sufficient number of treatment” This is “the basis of any fight against infectious diseases”.

Comment: a rule not followed everywhere

A point of view that is neither anarchist nor dogmatic. Most epidemic doctors say so. Unfortunately, even after the arrival of the epidemic in Italy, most European countries (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom) did not hold this primary rule of conduct. Result: the epidemic gallops at the rate of several thousand deaths per day throughout Europe.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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