In the News: a very French evil

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By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

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Le Figaro is getting angry this morning against what he calls the "  regulatory shackles  ", namely all these "  bureaucratic slowness which slows down the fight against the coronavirus.  "

Indeed, the newspaper specifies, “  the coronavirus crisis has thrown a raw light on a very French disease: the heaviness of our administrative apparatus. They explain in part the obstacle course to which the medical profession has been subjected in order to obtain sufficient numbers of masks and tests ; the inconsistencies noted here and there to urgently associate the private sector and city medicine with the hospital system ; the difficulties encountered by local authorities in making themselves heard in Paris… Entangled in its standards and procedures, our country has lagged behind in the fight against Covid-19 compared to countries like Germany, Norway or the 'Austria.  "

And Le Figaro is therefore annoyed: "  It is this administrative poison, which, since the beginning of the health crisis which strikes us, slows down, disorderly, discourages. It is he who seizes the gigantic machinery of the State. It is he who explains that with 56% of public spending, an overwhelming tax pressure, mothers are reduced to sewing gowns for a hospital that is lacking, that local elected officials are ahead of the authorities in ordering masks , that perfectly equipped private clinics were first empty when the public hospital was submerged. It is he who paralyzes, from certification to validation, the chain of command.  "

So, implores Le Figaro , “  would it be asking too much of this State which is struggling to put together masks and tests that it ceases to be so meticulous in the details (…)  ? Since today all the hindrance, let it let these countless French who keep in adversity - and caregivers are the best proof - their ingenuity and their courage.  "

The coronavirus crisis : a springboard for the left ?

Another theme, another reflection on the front page of Liberation  : what if we got out of this coronavirus crisis "  from the left?" Liberation  poses  : "  Rehabilitation of the welfare state, highlighting of neoliberal excesses, resumption of solidarity ... Social and humanist values ​​appear as the natural remedies of the post-pandemic.  "

So, the newspaper wonders, "  is it time for revenge for leftist ideas ? And for those who wear them ? (…) On paper , yes, answers Liberation  : everyone understands that we can no longer allow predatory and erratic capitalism to preside over the fate of men and women. Everyone feels that we must democratically control the future of a planet threatened by crises of all kinds, health today, social and climate tomorrow, without falling, after the confinement of individuals, into the confinement of nations to inside closed borders.  "

However, in reality, notes Liberation , the mismatch on the left, with its share of hatred and resentment, hinders this momentum, especially as the rivalries are sharpening as the presidential election approaches. This does not prevent the newspaper, in its editorial, from hoping that we "  find the ways and means of a change of majority, insofar as the current one will have trouble, whatever it says, to suddenly burn what she loved and apply a program opposite to that which brought her to power.  "

The pangolin: not guilty but a victim ...

To read in Le Monde , this fascinating investigation into ... the pangolin.

"  He who loves living at night so much is in full light. Peaceful quadruped of tropical forests and savannas, the pangolin has become the object of all attention. The small toothless mammal is believed to be one of the major players in the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed nearly 160,000 people worldwide in just four months . "

However, he is not the culprit, but the man, emphasizes Le Monde . "Of course it's us," confirms Didier Sicard, professor of medicine and specialist in infectious diseases. Like Covid-19, 75% of the new diseases that affect humans today are zoonoses, that is to say pathologies transmitted by animals , says the scientist. "Our total disrespect for the flora and fauna leads to bringing together in scandalous sanitary conditions living animals which in principle do not mix", protests Gilles Boeuf, visiting professor at the Collège de France. "Think for example of these Asian markets like that of Wuhan, the Chinese metropolis from which the pandemic would have started. We meet civets, snakes, crocodiles, swans, donkeys, dogs and, under the coat, species prohibited from sale such as pangolins, in particular ", describes, just as exasperated, Didier Sicard, of the Institut Pasteur in Laos. This forced commercial proximity facilitates the exchange of virus genes between neighbors of the cage , Le Monde points, and multiplies the dangers of infection. Man has been playing with fire for a long time, in reality, sighs the newspaper. Forced deforestation drives wild species out of their natural habitats. Animals approach villages and ecosystems falter. The pangolin does not escape this development frenzy but it also holds a sad record: it is the most poached mammal in the world . "

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