In France, the fast-spreading virus has killed 562 and led to more than 14,400 confirmed cases on Sunday. The French hospital system is on the brink of being overwhelmed by virus patients, with hospital beds and ICU-treatment capacity is quickly running out.
French hospitals are running out of protective gear, leaving medical staff susceptible to contracting the virus.
It has become entirely evident that the European country was not prepared to fight a pandemic. This is the claim that is being made by three French medics in a new lawsuit against Minister Edouard Philippe and former minister of solidarity and health, Agnes Buzyn.
Lawyers for the medics told RT News that the complaint alleges the two senior officials failed to prepare the country for a health crisis that has paralyzed it.
The complaint said both officials were completely aware of the virus in January but "chose not to act."
"At some point, the truth needs to be told, which is that these people have been lying to us from the start," Fabrice di Vizio, the lawyer representing the three plaintiffs, told RT.
The complaint referenced an interview Buzyn gave the Le Monde newspaper, in which she regrets leaving her government post and running for mayor of Paris as the virus crisis was developing earlier this year:
"I knew that the tsunami wave was before us. "On January 30, I warned [Prime Minister] Edouard Philippe that the elections could probably not be held. "We should have stopped everything, it was a masquerade."
The French government has rejected any wrongdoing and has said their response to the virus has been satisfactory.
Di Vizio told RT that the government is still unprepared and lacks critical protective gear for healthcare workers:
"Last week the government spoke about the masks. You remember those pompous speeches by the president, who was all commander-in-chief in tone and promised the masks?" he said. "Masks are a primary tool of war since they protect the health workers. Have those masks arrived?"
It would be an absolute disaster if French medics and healthcare workers joined the anti-government "Yellow Vest" protestors out of their disgust for the failure of the government. After all, last month, French firefighters joined the protests.
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