The EU are on a collision course with the UK over vaccines.

Mamie

Yes vaccine nationalism is very sad I think.
Interesting to see that extra intensive care beds are to be supported by the army. We are in a red zone with cases at about 225 per 100,000 in our département, but pressure on intensive care is still only 35%. The regional variations are remarkable.

The incidence of cases was higher than that in a number of UK regions for many weeks. There are still a number of areas over 100 per 100,000 and two over 200. The variations here are stark too.

Urmstongran

I went to bed last night genuinely worrying about the French situation as the numbers are so high. And I know my daughter’s partner cannot wait to be able to fly out to Germany to see his grandmother who is in her mid-90’s. He is her only grandchild and much adored. Time isn’t on her side and he is anxious about her.

They've been much higher in the UK and are still as high as Mamies's area in two places in the UK.

It looks to me from the detailed data on Covid Tracker that the numbers are well down in older age groups, but because the variant has been circulating faster in schools, it is the younger age groups getting hit. The high levels in our area are the groups between 10 and 59 and the highest is 30-39.

Reading past posts on this thread they seemed to say facts do not matter on the "chat" board. If this is really the case then surely we should be asking GNHQ to move threads like and including this one to be moved? We all know where nationalism based on lies and distorted facts leads countries and we surely don't want it for our own. Having read that comment I can only thank those who have heard speeches in their original language and translated them for us and those reporting on what they see happening around them.

PippaZ thank you for thanking those of us who listened to the speech in the original language, those of us who provided translations, and those who live in France or those of us who even have relatives over there.
But by suggesting the thread should be removed when the narrative veers in other directions is taking from people that precious " liberté de parole" (freedom of speech.

Anyway, back to the real stuff. It was interesting that he urged citizens not to lock themselves away (ne pas s'enfermer), that is a bit different from our "stay home."
Also although he didn't say schools were shut, he did say the school calendar had been "adapted" so that pupils in every zone would be "on holiday" until April 26th. So that is sort of schools closed as my friends in Brittany zone B are experiencing.
He did say that vaccine programme should accelerate as fast as possible, rapidly, etc. as doses arrive.
And as already stated he expressed deep regret at how the vaccination programme had been rolled out.
Plenty of nuances to chew over. Plenty of optimism in a rousing speech.
My French friend on the ground made me laugh. She is more concerned that the local supermarket isn't at all good and the one she wants to frequent is over the border in Normandy only 8 km away but she shouldn't hop from region to region. Priorities!

Ellianne schools will be closed for two weeks "Easter" holiday. Instead of spreading out the zones as normal, we will all be on holiday at the same time. Apart from that remote learning for one week in primary and two in secondary.
We are lucky in our move because we can shop without filling in a declaration. In our old house we were more than 10km from the shops. ?

Mamie glad to hear you are happy in your new home. Your roads will be a bit quieter without all those UK holiday cars and caravans spilling out from the ferries.

I totally agree France has done a good job at keeping schools open the most during this pandemic. The thing I wasn't sure about was when he said there are no more infections in schools than anywhere else. Is this really true, I'm sure many GNs on here with the figures would disagree? Or is it because as I asked before there is no weekly resting on pupils so fewer infections recorded?

Ellianne

PippaZ thank you for thanking those of us who listened to the speech in the original language, those of us who provided translations, and those who live in France or those of us who even have relatives over there.
But by suggesting the thread should be removed when the narrative veers in other directions is taking from people that precious " liberté de parole" (freedom of speech.

Not removed Ellianne - moved . There seemed to be a cohort (small) who differentiate between "Chat" where, it was suggested, no facts are required and, say "Politics and News" where facts would be required. I was just grateful we ended up with properly sourced facts as, in my opinion, any nationalism including vaccine nationalism is too important to rely on unsubstantiated gossip.

Anyway, back to the real stuff. Are you now suggesting my posts are not real stuff. I assure you they are just as real to me - and obviously to some others earlier on in this thread - as yours are to you.

Let's not get into a discussion on the hierarchy of views. I just wanted to thank those, in the country under discussion and elsewhere, who were bringing facts to the table.

PippaZ

^Anyway, back to the real stuff.^ Are you now suggesting my posts are not real stuff. I assure you they are just as real to me - and obviously to some others earlier on in this thread - as yours are to you.

Let's not get into a discussion on the hierarchy of views. I just wanted to thank those, in the country under discussion and elsewhere, who were bringing facts to the table.

What are you talking about PippaZ? No need to be so touchy. If anything it was me stopping myself digressing and trying to get back to the bones of Macron's speech of 31st March, ie yesterday.

@ Ellianne: Thu 01-Apr-21 10:47:56

You first suggested I was attempting to "take away" people's freedom of speech Ellianne. I assumed you had just misread what was written - hence the smile. I was not being touchy as you could see - just correcting a mistake. Having been told I was taking away people's freedom of speech, anyone might well read Anyway, back to the real stuff., as a comment on their post not being "the real stuff".

I don't feel in the least bit touchy Ellianne but having thanked you, among others, I do think you were a little less than gracious.

Ellianne if you look at this site
covidtracker.fr/
You can click on a département and see the figures. If you scroll down you can see the numbers by age group.

Thanks Mamie.

OK PippaZ in the words of a GN who came to the rescue of posters on a different thread, If you upset someone, apologise and move on. Sorry if I upset you.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message removed as it refers to a post which has been withdrawn.

Message removed as it refers to a post which has been withdrawn.

Oh UG. This thread is in Chat, and you say no nasty digs.

But we've had Macron and Merkel called malevolent, accusations that they are slowing down the rollout in their countries and endangering the lives of their populations just because they don't like us Brits, mis-translation of their public pronouncements to make them and the situation in France look worse than it is, and implications that Germany is undercounting their deaths.

That's not Chat, that's unfounded rumour-mongering. If I were a cynical person I'd wonder if you had an ulterior motive for putting this in Chat

Ah! I'd forgotten that Chat is a fact-free zone for fluffy gossip, which cannot be challenged by anybody who doesn't get on with DM style.

Mamie

Ellianne if you look at this site
covidtracker.fr/
You can click on a département and see the figures. If you scroll down you can see the numbers by age group.

The one I clicked (Indre) has an incidence rate of 189/100,000, which is lower than some areas of the UK even now and low compared with much of the UK just a couple of weeks ago.

47% of cases are UK variant.

The 20-29 age group has the highest number of cases, followed very closely by 10-19. There are more in the 10-19 group than in the 60+ group. That's a similar pattern to the UK currently.

In France today, many parliamentarians had a pop at Macron and his decision making.

Here is just one:

During a turbulent parliamentary debate, opposition groups across the board savaged Mr Macron's go-it-alone Covid strategy.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the leftist Unbowed France, called it a "disgrace" and a "masquerade".

"It really is April 1 today," he told MPs. "Everything has already been decided and we are invited to come and acclaim…the presidential monarch, the best virologist in France apparently, and modesty's best friend. We will boycott this vote.

"You are responsible before history of a health disaster the likes of which this country has never seen. You let the wave rise by aggravating everything."

Ouch.

There’s more. French newspapers (not British, note):

French media remained sceptical about Mr Macron's insistence that normality could return to France by mid-May.

"Lockdown, the sequel... and the end?" Le Figaro headlined its front page Thursday, while Le Parisien, the capital's daily, called Mr Macron's strategy "slowing without shutting down" even as "the situation has never been so dangerous or complicated".

Yet more:

In Le Monde, Solenne de Royer wrote that Mr Macron's "dramatisation" of the stakes was a blatant attempt to "mask the government's powerlessness against an out-of-control epidemic and cumulative delays since last summer over vaccination and intensive care beds".

Not Daily Mail rants. French journalists.

Sorry Macron but not everyone there believes you.

But you've got to love a French President who keeps chocolatiers open in a lockdown! Very essential.

Reading the above where does The EU are on a collision course with the UK over vaccines. come in? By no means everyone in the UK believes what Johnson has to say either but I can't see where that would play a part in answering the OP but it would be nice to see some balance.