B Acad Nat Med Paris
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B Acad Nat Med Paris · Oct 2022
Review[The French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA) and wastewater-based epidemiology: Applicability and relevance in armed forces].
The French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA) deeply involved in research on SARS-COV-2, participated in the creation of the Obépine sentinel network in charge of detecting, qualifying and quantifying the virus genome in wastewater in France. During this pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology has proven to be a first class public health tool for assessing viral dynamics in populations and environment. Obépine has also conducted research demonstrating the low infectivity of faeces and wastewater and allowed for early detection of epidemic waves linked to new variants. ⋯ The presence of this surveillance and anticipation tool has allowed a better management of SARS-CoV-2 contingent introductions on board during stopovers or crewmembers entries. The combination of a mandatory vaccination protocol and the surveillance of viral circulation in black waters has made it possible to identify and locate cases, and thus to continue the operational mission in the COVID-19 environment while limiting the spread and preserving the health of the crew. This innovative tool can easily be redirected to the search for any other pathogens in blackwater or even, in the long term, to ensure health surveillance of any military establishment, at sea or on land, in France or on overseas bases.
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B Acad Nat Med Paris · Oct 2022
[Perception of medication risk by the public and role of the media].
Opinion polls regularly show that the vast majority of French people have a positive perception of the efficacy and safety of using medicines, including vaccines. Distrust or hostility towards them is only the fact of a small minority of the population, but active and noisy on social networks and overvalued by the media and public authorities. However, the pandemic due to Covid 19 (SARS-CoV-2) has confirmed to what extent the perception of drug risk by the public is unstable, sometimes irrational, how many and complex the determinants of this perception are and what role as a public resonance, fears play out in the media. ⋯ Promoting the correct perception of drug risk requires recalling both the benefits and the risks linked to action but also those linked to inaction; to clarify institutional messages by making them as factual as possible; to limit the number of public broadcasters to achieve greater consistency in their messages; to have the frankness to sometimes say that we do not know, medicine by nature being practiced in a context of uncertainty. The Academy calls for an ambitious educational policy for young people: training in critical thinking and the acquisition of the basics of drug risk should be introduced from middle school. The Academy also believes that the public is entitled to expect quality-controlled information from the media, away from rumors, by calling on indisputable experts and by favoring objective data over subjective testimonies based on personal experiences.