It is one of the first witnesses of the French health crisis. Yesterday a simple researcher, he blows in the ear of the President today. Professor Arnaud Fontanet is responsible for the epidemiology of emerging diseases research unit at the Institut Pasteur. He is also one of the 10 members of the Scientific Council brought together by Emmanuel Macron last March. He agreed to tell us about this unprecedented crisis management, a year after the arrival of the coronavirus in our lives.

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Prof. Arnaud Fontanet

It arrived without warning, at the end of 2019. A first Chinese case and a mutant virus still unknown: SARS COV 2. From December, it spread to the four corners of the globe. Faced with the danger, the French executive surrounded itself with an army of experts. And on March 11, 2020, a new kind of assembly is born: the scientific council. The epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet is one of its members. He agreed to go behind the scenes.