Last Wednesday, while the French government said it was waiting to see about a new lockdown based on how well vaccinations were going, the official of one of the country’s leading hospitals called for a new lockdown immediately.
Philippe Juvin, speaking from the George Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, stated, “I do not understand what we are waiting for… As we get closer to an epidemic peak, each day spent without taking a decision comes with a heavy price.”
He was referring to reports of just over 25,000 new cases last week, up from 22,500 the week before, which French health authorities attributed to the new variant. (Note: To date, France has had 86,000 deaths out of a country of about 65 million or 0.1 percent.)
Once again, political leaders and their health ‘”experts” like Mr. Juvin quoted above demanding a new national lockdown point to the threat of new variants, which are increasing the number of cases. But as Dr. William Moss, infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, clarified on 1 January when new mutations were being promoted as threatening, “All viruses mutate, and RNA viruses mutate particularly, so this virus has always been mutating, just slowly and kind of steadily.”
Yet Reuters reports that the city of Paris “has for its part pressed on with a proposal to enforce a strict three-week lockdown and then consider reopening businesses, including bars, restaurants, and cultural venues that have been closed since October.”
Mr. Juvin, the hospital health official, said he would continue to lobby the government to impose more restrictions: “We will not avoid a new lockdown. And the longer we wait to take such a decision, the longer it will last.”
