The 7 day quarantine? My eye !

I am — perhaps — a contact case. One of my colleagues tested positive on September 17 and we had shared a workspace for a few hours the day before. I was obviously never alerted by anyone (laboratory, health insurance, etc.) but simply by my superiors and a phone call from this colleague who informed me of his positive test. So I left my place of work as early as September 18 and called a testing lab to do a test myself, which seems to be the recommended procedure.

It was a Friday. Within an acceptable radius around my home — I remind you that as a potential contact case, I must “isolate myself”, which means a priori do not multiply the trips – impossible to do the slightest test before Monday, September 21 (the virus is probably entitled to weekly holidays on Saturday and Sunday…) That is to say six days after a possible contamination.

I was therefore sampled on September 21, after queuing for more than two hours at the door of the laboratory since, being asymptomatic and although a contact case, I was not entitled to the “priority” which consists for this laboratory to grant appointments at fixed times only to “sick” patients, that is to say those with symptoms.

When I asked when I will have the results of this PCR test, I was told that I would have to wait… 5 days! I will therefore know on September 26 if I may have been contaminated by my colleague on September 15, that is 11 days before!

The reality of the facts

So when the Prime Minister announces, like a savior, that the quarantine is now reduced to 7 days, he is obviously very foreign to the reality of the facts and to the functioning “in real life” of the health processes validated and imposed by his government.

It is true that he cannot know everything: after a trip to the Tour de France where he became a “contact case” of the boss of the race, Christian Prudhomme, tested positive the next day, he probably had a lot less difficulties than me to find a laboratory capable of testing it quickly and probably did not have to wait 5 days before the results were communicated to him: it is certainly in the light of this speed concerning his particular case that he can judge the effectiveness of the testing policy…

More seriously, such a situation, which goes against all health logic, can only discourage those who still believe in prevention messages and respect for rules that should protect us collectively, while showing that the coronavirus crisis does not is still unmanaged.

Lack of preparation, lies and arbitrariness

After the lack of preparation for the arrival of the virus, after the lies about the shortage of masks and their usefulness, after an exaggerated confinement and infantilizing conditions, after the arbitrariness vis-à-vis certain choices of treatments, how can the French who have to accept delays resulting in their tests ultimately being useless have the feeling – yet necessary for life to resume more or less normally in our country – that everything is done for their health security?

Since the start of this crisis, there has not been a decision by the State that has not come up against the expression of contradictory opinions, the absence of a clear line, a permanent lack of resources implemented, the inability to translate announcements into the field which, for lack of effective follow-up, are nothing more than a source of legitimate distrust of public speech and of paralyzing anxiety about what the months to come have in store for us.

Am I being too harsh? To come back to my modest case, if my test is “positive” on September 26, I will in theory be forced to add seven days to my isolation, i.e. a parenthesis in my personal and professional life which will last a total of 16 days. Quarantine reduced to 7 days? Who are we making fun of, on this subject and why not on others?