Day 69 of the second confinement period

I might have a cover and story idea for the comic book being worked on

Another Classic

The song above goes very well with the pic below frpm another famous trip to the Le Mans 24h race.

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▫️The news is fairly bleak, the number of new daily cases is growing and is expected to carry on doing so.

▫️The Scientific Council met yesterday the Prime Minister M. Jean Castex is to hold a press conference later today at 6pm.

▫️The recommendations are to have a strict lockdown again as of next week at the latest in a similar fashion Germany, the UK and other EU countries are doing.

▫️The pessimistic view is that improvements cannot be expected before Septembre and that is assuming vaccinations in a large scale.

▫️ Earth tremor

A 2.7 magnitude earthquake shook Sigean and its surroundings on Wednesday evening.

It was 21h44 precisely this Wednesday evening when a light earthquake shook the area of Sigean, south of Narbonne in the department of Aude. The earthquake was recorded at a magnitude of 2.7 on the open Richter scale. An aftershock was also recorded at 22:15 with a magnitude of 1.8. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at a depth of 10 kilometers.

▫️Place Carnot

Due to the work carried out on Place Carnot as part of the “Action Coeur de Ville” plan, which will begin on Monday, January 11th and run until the end of April 2021, the traditional Carnot market will be transferred to two sites as of January 12th, 2021 :

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the Halles Prosper Montagné.
On Saturdays, Boulevard Commandant Roumens (promenade des Tilleuls) (see red marker).
Please note that during the work period, the merchants of the Place Carnot remain open and welcome their customers.

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▫️Working on this new report

The number of vaccinations so far in France is so ridicoulously small that it hardly registers on my “actual v target” chart.

At this rate the one million target by the end of Jan 2021 will be reached on November 4th 2030.

▫️I found the following article which is quite interesting and reflects quite well the status.

Why are so many in France hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine?

Misinformation and a history of health scandals have led to a powerful anti-vax movement, presenting France with a fresh challenge in the pandemic.

France’s vaccine sceptics typically fall into three categories: young people, women, and those aligned with the political far left and far right, according to an expert [File: Eric Gaillard/Reuters]

By Rebecca Rosman

6 Jan 2021

Paris, France – Jean Debouche is not “against” vaccines. In fact, the 80-year-old says he is among the first in line to get the flu shot every year. But when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, the retired truck driver says there is no way he will be getting inoculated, even if he is eligible. “We don’t know what’s inside it,” the lifelong Paris resident said of the vaccine.

France started rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 27, along with other European Union members.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Debouche said he was sceptical because France was prioritising vaccinations for nursing home residents.

“It’s like they’re using the elderly as guinea pigs,” he said. Debouche is not alone.

According to a recent survey by the Odoxa polling group and Le Figaro newspaper, 58 percent of the French population are sceptical of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 33 percent of people in the UK and 41 percent in the US.

“A lot of people just don’t trust what the government and scientific experts are saying,” Antoine Bristielle, a researcher at the Jean-Jaures think-tank in Paris, told Al Jazeera.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than 65,000 people in France in Europe’s one of the deadliest outbreaks [Charles Platiau/Reuters]

According to Bristielle’s research, France’s vaccine sceptics typically fall into three categories: young people, women, and those aligned with the political far left and far right.

But the most common dominator, he says, is mistrust in the government.

Bristielle points to two health incidents from the early 1990s that have scarred the French population: the hepatitis B vaccine roll-out and a blood contamination scandal involving the government.

A mass vaccination campaign against hepatitis B in the early 1990s coincided with a jump in multiple sclerosis diagnoses, leading many to link the two. While studies never found any convincing evidence tying hepatitis B vaccines and multiple sclerosis together, it led to a dramatic rise in vaccine hesitancy.

In 1991, in France’s biggest public health scandal, the government was found to have knowingly administered transfusions with contaminated blood from people who were HIV positive to at least 1,200 haemophiliacs, which led to hundreds of deaths.

French government officials had initially said they were not aware the blood was contaminated. Three ministers, including former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, were charged with manslaughter. Only one was found guilty and received no sentence.

But to this day the scandal has left public confidence in the government shaky at best.

An even more problematic issue today, Bristielle says, is disinformation about the safety of the vaccine being disseminated by the mainstream media.

“You have a lot of so-called experts going on television saying false things,” Bristielle said. “Even if what they’re saying is obviously not true, the fact that it’s being said on mainstream TV validates it in a way.”

‘It will turn you into a GMO’

Conspiracy theories about the vaccine have been spreading in France for months. Among the most extreme: the belief that the vaccine alters peoples’ DNA, or that it contains microchips designed to track people.

One group fighting the spread of this kind of fake news is Les Vaxxeuses. Founded in 2017, the organisation has 20,000 followers on Facebook and is made up of 20 to 30 volunteers, many of whom are scientists, who find and correct misinformation about vaccines.

“You see some crazy things being shared, like people saying [the vaccine] will turn you into a GMO [genetically modified organism],” Marie, a volunteer with Les Vaxxeuses who preferred not to share her last name for her safety, told Al Jazeera.

One of the most common concerns is that the COVID-19 vaccine was made too quickly.

“We explain to them that if other kinds of vaccine research was given this amount of money, they could be made in the same amount of time,” Marie said.

Magalie, a 50-year-old librarian who asked not to give her last name for fear of being judged by colleagues, said she does not plan on taking the vaccine for at least a year.

She told Al Jazeera: “This was all done in a matter of months … it’s too soon to know what the side effects might even be.”

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▫️ What is the point of that?

I am flabbergasted

▫️ Duty Free

A possible plus regarding Brexit is the return of the Duty Free shops between the UK and France. There is a positive side to everything I say.

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▫️ Dakar Rally 2021

Some of today’s impressive photos / scenery from stage 4

There are 6 categories competing

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▫️Vendée Globe

I would love to be part of the back up teams on the ground advising on possible routes taking into account the ever changing wind conditions. The final decision is of course down to the captain.