Macron, who is under pressure from business groups and a COVID-weary public to open up the economy again, announced in an interview with the regional papers a four-phase plan for unwinding France's month-long stay-at-home order.
The plan envisages the nightly curfew being pushed back to 2100 from 1900 CET from May 19 and to 2300 from June 9, before being scrapped completely on June 30.
Of most interest to people on the Forum is the information in the interview that France will open to tourists from other countries on June 9. It says that tourists will need a “health pass” but again, the details of that have yet to be worked out.
Also, several of the progressive opening items/dates are apparently tied to a rate of incidence per 100k people of below 400 — a figure that Paris and all the Île de France, along with Marseille, doesn't currently meet.
Sure, but daily, vaccinations are increasing, and on another note, the EU is purchasing 1.8Billion Pfizer vaccines (and suing AstraZeneca) so that can't hurt anything.
the EU is purchasing 1.8Billion Pfizer vaccines (and suing AstraZeneca) so that can't hurt anything.
billion? really???
for a population of France (total - including those already vaccinated and children) of 67 million?
1,800,000,000 divided by 67,000,000 is 26 doses for every man woman and child in the country... eh???
The population of all of the EU is 446 million so 900 million would do for every man woman and child in the EU to get two doses each. Still twice as much as ever possibly needed, even if they were starting from scratch...
you don't mean opening to travel, but a lot of people might read the title that way. You mean that the curfew is becoming less restrictive, but still in force on the 9th of June, right?
the EU is purchasing 1.8Billion Pfizer vaccines (and suing AstraZeneca) so that can't hurt anything
-
billion? really??
The U.S.A. reportedly also ordered more vaccine than needed for its population. With 12% of Americans, at last report, vowing to not get vaccinated, there’s going to be even more left over. Not having seen news reports with details about this, I can only surmise that the EU, like the U.S.A. (and maybe other “first world” elements?) is planning on donating surplus vaccine to less-wealthy parts of the world. A magnanimous gesture could maybe really be intended as a political strategy, but would at least get more folks vaccinated.
And suing A-Z? That’s not nice, but if all this makes France safer for visiting, and sooner rather than later, so much the better.
"Foreign tourists with a "health pass" will be allowed to visit France again from June 9, according to the timetable published by Ouest France and other newspapers."
But yes it's a 4 phase reopening, culminating w being open to vaccinated tourists.
More on the vax purchase https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-seeks-new-contract-with-pfizerbiontech-up-18-bln-vaccines-2022-eu-source-2021-04-09/
Thank you for that latest link, skunklet1771. So these are future orders for next year, and the year after that. Maybe some of that’s for follow-up vaccines, if the same formula’s going to efficacious, especially considering variants that have already developed. Maybe the forecast is that it’s just going to take 2 1/2 years to vaccinate all of the E.U.
Strictly for selfish reasons, I wonder whether other countries, like Italy, will be influenced by the France announcement, and this will become a trend?
Spain announced they're reopening too, so maybe Italy will as well...
I imagine Mr. Rick Steves is closely monitoring all this, and his pulse just might be rising a bit.
The 1,8 billion deal covers multiple years. From the NY Times, ” The new contract will include a 900-million-dose order through 2023, with an option for another 900 million,”
According to the BBC, Macron is hoping that France will open for tourists 9 June, subject to having a Covid health pass, but at this time, France will still be under an 11pm curfew and you won’t be able to eat inside restaurants. He also said an emergency brake could be applied in areas of high infection. Things will change before June, but at present, Paris has high infection rates.
July sounds less restrictive, just in time for the peak French holiday season. What a surprise!
A friend of mine lives in France and although she has been vaccinated, few of her neighbours are willing to have the vaccine. Another friend’s French sister in law refuses to be vaccinated. If this is typical, France has quite a way to go.
The U.K. has just ordered another 60 million vaccines for an autumn booster programme, taking the total number of vaccines secured to 517 million for a population of 67 million - that’s 7.7 vaccines for every man, woman and child - children aren’t currently being vaccinated. The EU is also buying vaccines for future use - it will be like getting a winter flu shot.
From France 24:
Foreign tourists will once more be able to enter the country starting on June 9 if they have a certificate of vaccination or a PCR test. The nightly curfew will be extended to 11pm.
Beginning on June 30, the nighttime curfew and most other restrictions would be lifted although Covid-19 prevention protocols would remain in place in public spaces. Nightclubs will remain closed.
Interestingly, the G7 summit starts on June 11. Perhaps some announcements at the summit regarding travel?
Sure, but daily, vaccinations are increasing, and on another note, the EU is purchasing 1.8Billion Pfizer vaccines (and suing AstraZeneca) so that can't hurt anything.
Suing Astrazeneca will hurt, it will hurt the EU when businesses are looking to set up in the EU. What company would want to risk having their products seized and impounded, intellectual property rights seized and the potential for being sued simply because a customer didn't like the contract that they signed. Astrazeneca are seling their vaccine at cost price, something no other manufacturer is doing which is relatively altruistic in the pharmaceutical world and yet the EU has vast stockpiles of the AZ vaccine, some countries have stopped using it and others have restricted its use so why sue? AZ have done nothing wrong, it's all down to EU incompetence.
The biggest problem facing France is vaccine resistance. A huge number of French citizens do not want the vaccine, any of them, and with such reticence it will be difficult to achieve the numbers required. If the low rates of infection currently experienced in the UK is a result of high vaccine takeup rather than a seasonal influence then France is going to struggle to manage the virus.
Astrazeneca is being sued by the EU for breach of contract and failure to deliver vaccines. The decision to sue was endorsed by every one of the 27 EU member nations. The EU also cancelled any future delivery that was to be made by Astrazeneca and just signed a huge contract with Pfizer. Astrazeneca´s breach cost lives and derailed a vaccination schedule put into place by the EU.
The biggest problem facing France is vaccine resistance. A huge number of French citizens do not want the vaccine, any of them,
This myth is often repeated on this forum. France has population vaccination rates, 30%, which are on a par with those of other EU countries. Right now, all that is keeping more citizens from being vaccinated is a lack of vaccine, currently only available to those over 65.
I didn’t mention U.S. tourists when I relayed the information about June 9, because it wasn't specified in the interview and thus the question remains open. We will see who is included in the June 9 opening - if it is restricted or broad.
Tocard is right — although the age level to which vaccines are now open is 55 and up (not 65). I am very aware of this as my husband is 53, and thus very close — but no cigar yet.
We are in a weird situation right now where people who are younger than 55 are begging the government to open vaccination to them, especially in as much there are reports that there are something like 200,000 vaccination appointments countrywide currently going unfilled. The government insists it wants to continue focusing on the older contingent, saying that there are still some 4 million people in that coterie to be vaccinated — while younger folks are saying they’ve had their chance and those in that age group who are interested have already come — open it up to the rest of us.
Kim,
Macron confirmed in a tweet that 18 and over would be eligible beginning June 15.
Vous avez 18 ans ou plus : rendez-vous le 15 juin pour vous faire
vacciner.— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April
30, 2021
BFM TV has a convenient graphic summarizing the announced opening schedule.
Glad I'm not in the Discothèque business.
The only time there should be unused vaccine is when eligibility is open to all. You shouldn’t have both unused vaccine and limited eligibility.
I volunteered at mass vaccination events here, and can tell you why there are leftover vaccines here in the US. The organizers can plan, but they dont know too far in advance exactly how many doses they're getting. They can't overbook, but there are many, many no-shows and people who dont un-register when they get it from somewhere else. And once they thaw the vaccine out, and fill a bunch of syringes, they have to be used in a certain (short) amount of time and cannot be re-frozen. So yeah, it happens, but not out of incompetence or poor planning. And since most jabbers and helpers are volunteers, and there's little pre-exisitng infrastructure to support mobile teams, you cant make them go out and look for victims in the woods to use up more doses.
At this time, in my metro area, anyone can walk into just about any pharmacy without an appointment and get the vaccine.
Astrazeneca is being sued by the EU for breach of contract and failure to deliver vaccines. The decision to sue was endorsed by every one of the 27 EU member nations. The EU also cancelled any future delivery that was to be made by Astrazeneca and just signed a huge contract with Pfizer. Astrazeneca´s breach cost lives and derailed a vaccination schedule put into place by the EU.
AZ didn't breach the contract agreed with the EU. The EU contract was a "best effort" one which essentially means that AZ will try their best to produce the orders. This contract was different to the one agreed with the UK which was a contractually obliged one to supply x amount of vaccines. As it transpired, AZ was beset with production issues at a number of their European plants so they were unable to produce as much as expected, this failure is covered by the "best effort" clause in the contract. There is a huge surplus of AZ vaccine throughout the EU but it is going unused because of several reasons, one of which was the false claim surrounding efficacy made by Emmanuel Macron and sections of the German press. Then there was the ever changing rules around which age group was at risk from the vaccine followed by the focus on blood clot risks which are no higher than the Pfizer, Moderna or J&J vaccine yet only the AZ vaccine was highlighted despite the fact that the EMA confirmed that it was safe to take. The result of the scaremongering was a widescale refusal by many European citizens to accept the AZ vaccine, people were attending their vaccine appointment only to refuse when they found out it was to be the AZ vaccine. All the lies, incompetence in securing a proper contract and misleading the public has put lives at risk and the ones responsible are the EU leaders that were involved in the debacle.
There are millions of doses stockpiled in the EU which will not be used. They've had their supply but won't use it so the honourable thing to do would be to give them to those countries that will gladly use them but we know that's not going to happen. There is widespread anger and condemnation throughout Europe regarding the way the EU has handled the vaccine procurement and distribution and the blame lays squarely at the EU Commission not the vaccine manufacturers. The fact that the EU has signed a large contract with Pfizer who are providing their vaccine for $14.70 per dose whereas they were paying $2.15 for the AZ vaccine speaks volumes, I think the EU commission needs to hire a better trade negotiator! The fact that AZ are selling their vaccine at cost price will result in a sacrifice of an estimated £21billion for the company which doesn't really fit in with the claim that their actions have cost lives, in fact it's quite the opposite as it means that poorer countries can afford to vaccinate far more of their population than if they had to rely on other vaccines.
This myth is often repeated on this forum. France has population vaccination rates, 30%, which are on a par with those of other EU countries. Right now, all that is keeping more citizens from being vaccinated is a lack of vaccine, currently only available to those over 65.
France is currently using a 1/4 of its AZ stock, there's plenty of vaccine availability. Only the other week a vaccination centre in Nice closed early because of a lack of attendance and had over 4000 doses left, this is absolutely not a case of a lack of vaccine but rather a general scepticism towards vaccines in general coupled with a fear of the AZ vaccine which is a result of president Macron's lies.
Whether the failure in France is mostly to blame on EU ineptitude or Macron incompetence, I don't know.
Both.
Tocard - I have friends living in France who have experienced vaccine resistance from most of their neighbours - fact not fiction. One friend (who has had cancer and is therefore eligible early for her age) had to go elsewhere for her jab as her GP had to cancel her local vaccination, as they needed 10 people to fulfil a minimum order and couldn’t raise enough interest.
I have seen many legal documents throughout my working life and know that the term “best endeavours” as in the AZ contract is not worth the paper it’s written on. I would never advise clients to sign a document including this phrase, but the EU signed!
Tocard - I have friends living in France who have experienced vaccine resistance from most of their neighbours - fact not fiction.
There are vaccine deniers everywhere just as there are people who still believe that the earth is flat. France´s inoculation rates are on a par with those of other EU countries. France, as well as most EU countries, is behind many other countries in inoculating the population, primarily due to a lack of vaccine availability, not because of massive numbers of people not wanting to be vaccinated.
France is currently using a 1/4 of its AZ stock, there's plenty of vaccine availability.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has well documented problems with safety which is why it was never authorized to be used in the US. The evidence is clear that the French are not any more afraid of being vaccinated than those of other countries, they just don´t want the AZ vaccination. You might be on to something if you have evidence that there is plenty of Pfizer vaccine left unused, which is simply not the case.
The US, not wanting the AstraZeneca vaccine any more than the French do, is giving away their supply to Mexico and Canada and probably any other country that will take it.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has well documented problems with safety which is why it was never authorized to be used in the US.
In the UK there have been more reports of blood clots associated with the Pfizer vaccine than the AZ one and overall the extremely minimal risk of blood clots is similar amongst the Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and AZ vaccines. The WHO, the EMA and other government agencies have determined that the AZ vaccine is safe for use. The debacle surrounding the AZ vaccine use in the EU was politically driven rather than evidence driven.
There are countless reports both in the media and anecdotally from people on this forum that there is a large resistance to vaccination in France, doses are frequently going unused and vaccination centres are closing early through lack of attendance, it has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of vaccines.
In the UK there have been more reports of blood clots associated with the Pfizer vaccine than the AZ
On a world wide scale, the opposite is true. If the AstraZeneca vaccine were as safe and as effective as you believe, it would have been approved by the FDA for use in the USA. There is not a single report in France of the Pfizer vaccine being available with no takers.
So is the FDA the foremost arbiter in the world of medicine safety? Is the UK's medicine regulator or the EMA of a lower standard than the FDA? The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved by the FDA despite having a lower efficacy rate than the AZ, Moderna or Pfizer vaccines and carries the same level of clot risk as the other vaccines. The fact that Pfizer, Moderna and J&J are all US pharmaceutical companies and all are selling the vaccine for profit rather than cost as Astrazeneca is (an Anglo/Swedish company) may have some bearing on why they're the major players in the US vaccine program.
There is not a single report in France of the Pfizer vaccine being available with no takers.
On the 28th April there were more than 270,000 unclaimed vaccination slots in France despite a recent delivery of over 7 million doses of the pfizer vaccine to the EU and the first shipment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. There are a number of reports of Pfizer vaccines having to be discarded in France because they have been removed from their frozen storage but the appointments were not attended.
^^^
I just wish Gov hadn’t lifted mask mandate so soon.
No, JC. The hold-up on the AstraZeneca in the US is because the company hasn't applied for an EUA yet (unless that has happened in the last few days and I missed it). The FDA has made it clear it wants solid data, which is precisely what AZ didn't get from its original stage 3 trial. It was the FDA's dissatisfaction with the design of that trial and the way its data was presented that led to a new AZ trial in the US; that put AZ well behind Pfizer, Moderna and J&J.
It's good that the President has a plan for reopening.
I have a plan to win the lottery, and it's based on about the same number of variables...
This is all so very interesting. I have penciled in an easily cancelable trip at the end of June. I asked myself if I would be happy with hotel breakfasts, walking the quais de la Seine, and just wandering aimlessly. Would I miss restaurants? Yes. Would I enjoy Monoprix junk food? I always do. Since this is my 20 something trip to France I wouldn't feel that I am giving up anything. If it was my first, I would wait. Suis-je fou? Probablement oui.
billion? really???
Really????
The AstraZeneca vaccine has well documented problems with safety which is why it was never authorized to be used in the US. The evidence is clear that the French are not any more afraid of being vaccinated than those of other countries, they just don´t want the AZ vaccination.
This is exactly right. While the (relatively small) danger from the AZ or J&J appears to be to younger women (it’s quite clear if you read the data on this), people have decided that AZ/ J&J are “damaged goods.”
For example — from everything I have read, I would be perfectly comfortable if my 53-year-old husband had an option to take AZ or J&J. If I had a girlfriend in her twenties, I would recommend she hold out for Pfizer or Moderna. Even though the risk to her is tiny, it exists and we are aware of it AND we have other options. But many others are just eschewing it wholesale.
Kim, if I had a girlfriend in her 20's .... well I would be so happy, she could take any vaccine she wanted, or not at all.
Hahahahha
Well played James
