With additional inputs from Dr Monica Vasudeva

788: COVID-19 pandemic: Doctors sue French government for criminal negligence

Amid thousands of dead and 29,155 confirmed COVID-19 cases in France, thousands of infected healthcare professionals, and six doctors already dead of the disease, anger is rising against the government among workers and medical staff. The French government downplayed the disease and deliberately withheld critical information from the public.

Hundreds of healthcare professionals are now filing a suit charging top officials with criminal negligence. A scandal came to the fore after ex-Health Minister Agnès Buzyn spoke to Le Monde, blaming Prime Minister Édouard Philippe for not calling off the March 15 first round of municipal elections, the second round of which has been canceled, and for downplaying her warnings on the pandemic. The interview appears to be an attempt by Buzyn to shift criminal responsibility off her shoulders and onto those of Philippe and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Suit is based on Article 233, part 7 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates: “Anyone who voluntarily abstains from taking or launching measures that would allow, without risk for himself or third persons, for fighting a catastrophe that could threaten physical persons is punished with two years in jail and a 30,000 euro fine.”

LawyerFabrice di Vizio said, “The government told them at the end of February that the masks would arrive. At the beginning of March, when they understood that the masks were not coming, they started hearing from the government that masks were not really needed… In fact, this was simply an admission of impotence and a lie. The plain truth is that the government had stocked no supplies.”

The last time this court was invoked was over the 1980s tainted blood scandal. Under Socialist Party (PS) President François Mitterrand, the National Center for Blood Transfusion (CNTS) used blood transfusions infected with the AIDS virus, wiping out France’s hemophiliac population. Then-Prime Minister Laurent Fabius’s PS government wanted to avoid using US companies’ equipment to test for the AIDS virus. It led to a delay in all screening of the blood until French firms could make such equipment, by which point the blood supply was already contaminated. [Reproduced from: wsws.org]

789: Should face shields replace face masks to ward off coronavirus?

In the April 29 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, experts led by Dr. Eli Perencevich, of the universitys department of internal medicine, and the Iowa City VA Health Care System state that face shields might replace masks as a more comfortable and more effective deterrent to COVID-19.

The clear plastic face shield is already in use by health care personnel.

These are quickly and affordably produced and distributed.

The US CDC has also started advocating the use of cloth masks to help stop COVID-19 transmission. Laboratory testing has pointed that cloth masks provide only some filtration of virus-sized aerosol particles.

According to the group, "face shields may provide a better option."

To be most effective in stopping viral spread, a face shield should extend to below the chin and should cover the ears as well. There should be no exposed gap between the forehead and the shields headpiece.

Shields have advantages over masks. They are reusable, simply requiring cleaning with soap and water or common disinfectants.  Shields are usually more comfortable to wear than masks, and form a barrier that keeps people from easily touching their own faces.

When speaking, people sometimes pull down a mask to make things easier, but that is not required with a face shield.

Additionally, the use of a face shield also reminds one of maintaining social distancing, but allows visibility of facial expressions and lip movements for speech perception.

A simulation study revealed that face shields could reduce immediate viral exposure by 96% when worn by a simulated healthcare worker within 18 inches of a cough.

As the study was repeated at the currently recommended physical distancing distance of 6 feet, it was noted that face shields reduced inhaled virus by 92%. 

Face shields should only be one part of any infection control effort, along with social distancing and hand washing. [US News]

790:  A coronavirus mystery riddle: Why some places fare better

The coronavirus has affected almost every country, but its impact has been uneven. Metropolises such as New York, Paris and London have been devastated, while teeming cities like Bangkok, Baghdad, New Delhi and Lagos have largely been spared.

There are several theories and speculations for why the virus has overwhelmed some places and left others relatively untouched but there are no definitive answers.

Hundreds of studies are underway on how demographics, public health and genetics could possibly explain the differing impact of the virus.

However, each possible explanation seems to come with caveats and counterevidence. If older people are highly vulnerable, for instance, Japan, with its aging population, should be devastated. But that is not true.

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA