SPECIAL COVID-19 21 “ If something similar happen again in the future, people reactions will be much quicker and much better. ” position,we started a surgical masks ated for business purposes, but rath- import suppyl chain with the support of er to help our fellow French citizens. the French government. We got closer to a Chinese customer who makes high What are the main lessons we need quality masks for a lon time. In 4 weeks’g to learn from this crisis? time, we have become a major importer of masks in cooperation with the French Nobody was prepared; no one could Directorate of Health (DGS) and Directorateeven imagine such a thing could hap- for Enterprise and Industry (DGE). We have pen. It is interesting to see that Asia so far imported 25 million surgical masks was better prepared. Maybe because supplied by our company to France. We 17 years ago they went through the are very proud of our teams and proud SRAS crisis and they have kept les- to take part in the collective effort. sons from it. I think that companies, public administrations, and even indi- How do you anticipate the end of the viduals willprobably have to keep more lockdown? stocks of protective materials on a permanent basis. I also believe that if Rather well ! To be honest we hope something similar happen again in the to come back to a more normal work- future, people reactions will be much load,while being proud of how we’ve quicker and much better, because ev- contributed to help getting out of the erybody will take it very seriously from crisis.Taking another example, our the very beginning, so that the conse- Sterisheet® products are now used to quences should be far less dramatic. In manufacture masks used by the CHU the meantime, life willhave continued in Angers (west of France) in France, or and come back to normal, hopefully! gowns by the CHU in Perpignan, and many more throughout the world. In the meantime, we’ve become a significant player inthe surgical masks supply in France.We are currently consider- ing how we could continue to build on this new activity,which was never cre-