Editing Module:COVID-19 pandemic in France (section)

== Shortage of masks controversy ==
[[File:Deux masques grand public.jpg|thumb|[[Cloth face mask]]s certified by [[AFNOR]]. The white mask is made of [[polypropylene]] and the black one is made of cotton.]]
{{See also|Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic}}
Strategic stocks of masks in 2009 under [[Roselyne Bachelot]], minister of health from May 2007 to November 2010, amounted to 1&nbsp;billion surgical masks and 600 million [[FFP2 mask]]s.<ref name=bfmtv1878500/> According to the French government, a change of doctrine had occurred upon recommendations from the General Health Directorate in July 2011, the decision was taken then to allow depletion of strategic stocks on the grounds of cost of maintaining the stockpile – including arbitrating the cost of obsolescence.<ref name=20200323franceinter/><ref name=bfmtv1878500/> Stock of surgical masks and FFP2 masks in late 2019 had dropped to 140 million and zero units respectively.<ref name=bfmtv1878500/>

Then-health minister [[Agnès Buzyn]] declared on 26 January that there would be no shortage of masks in France during the outbreak.<ref name="20200323franceinter"/> Later on 26 February, [[Jérôme Salomon]], the French ''Directeur général de la Santé'', declared during a debate by the [[Senate (France)|French Senate]] that "A mask shortage is not a subject".<ref name="salomon2602"/> However, health professionals complained that they were ill-equipped to face the crisis, due to inadequate stocks of protective equipment.<ref name=20200323franceinter/> On 3 March, with France still facing a shortage, President Macron commandeered all masks produced and stored in the country for distribution to health professionals and people who had contracted the virus.<ref name="bfmtv1878500"/><ref name="nouvelobs20200303"/>

France was subsequently accused of seizing medical equipment intended for other nations. On 5 March 2020, French authorities confiscated four million masks from the Swedish health care company [[Mölnlycke Health Care|Mölnlycke]], which were in a distribution centre in [[Lyon]] and destined for Spain and Italy. Two weeks later, after pressure from the Swedish government, France released the masks, allowing two million of them through, with the rest remaining in France either to be used there or for re-export.<ref name="AutoQ7-40"/> Mölnlycke estimated that a total of "six million masks were seized by the French. All had been contracted for, including a million masks each for France, Italy and Spain. The rest were destined for Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland."<ref name="irishtimes4216184"/>

On 27 April 2020, it was revealed by [[Libération]] that, contrary to government claims in March, a change of doctrine was not the main cause of the mask shortage, and that the government had been fully informed as early as 2018 that strategic reserves were depleted.<ref>{{cite web|title=Coronavirus: alerté sur la pénurie de masques, le gouvernement n'a pas reconstitué les stocks|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/coronavirus-alerte-sur-la-penurie-de-masques-le-gouvernement-na-pas-reconstitue-les-stocks_fr_5ea7ec4fc5b6dd3f908a7d48|publisher=[[HuffPost]]|date=28 April 2020|access-date=28 April 2020|archive-date=28 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428145511/https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/coronavirus-alerte-sur-la-penurie-de-masques-le-gouvernement-na-pas-reconstitue-les-stocks_fr_5ea7ec4fc5b6dd3f908a7d48|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 8 May 2020, the government announced that 200&nbsp;million masks per week would be available starting on 11 May: 100 million for medical workers and 100 million for the general public.<ref name="Masks200M">{{cite news |title=Coronavirus : le gouvernement promet 200 millions de masques par semaine dès lundi |url=https://www.dna.fr/sante/2020/05/08/coronavirus-le-gouvernement-promet-200-millions-de-masques-par-semaine-des-lundi |date=8 May 2020 |language=fr |work=DNA.fr |access-date=27 May 2020 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308183248/https://www.dna.fr/sante/2020/05/08/coronavirus-le-gouvernement-promet-200-millions-de-masques-par-semaine-des-lundi |url-status=live }}</ref>