In the News: in two weeks, we'll vaccinate

Audio 04:33

Vaccinations against Covid-19 could start as early as the last week of December.

(illustration photo) JOEL SAGET AFP / File

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

9 min

Publicity

This is the headline of

Sud-Ouest

which could not be more informative: indeed, “ 

subject to a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency, expected for December 21, vaccinations against Covid-19 could start as early as the last week of December.

 »Announcement made this Wednesday, December 16 by Prime Minister Jean Castex.  

The boost

 ," exclaims

Le Parisien,

which specifies that the vaccination campaign could start on December 27 or 28.

“ 

This boost is given so as not to leave the impression that France is falling behind compared to the United Kingdom and the United States, which have already started vaccination.

Germany, in the throes of a very violent peak in the epidemic, has already set up gymnasiums equipped for vaccination ready to open and is talking about a launch on December 27.

 " 

In any case, December 27 or 28, the countries of the European Union should start this campaign simultaneously.

For

Le Parisien

, " 

the symbol is strong

 ", after the unity found around the Brexit negotiations and after the adoption of the European recovery plan.

Also vaccinate against viral skepticism

However, it will take " 

not one but two vaccines,

 " say

Les Latest Nouvelles d'Alsace

, at least as far as France is concerned.

“ 

The first against the virus.

The second against the viral skepticism of social networks, fueled for years by beliefs and misunderstandings.

 "  

And unfortunately, continues the Alsatian daily, “ 

a principle has become opposable to the medical act aimed at group immunity

: the particular opinion which is considered more important by some than a quest for the common benefit.

The smallest part of individual risk matters more than the collective insurance given by scientific protocols.

 "  

So beware, warns the newspaper, “ 

without a vaccine in this pandemic, we will not see the end.

[…] Between reacting and continuing to suffer, the French will have to choose.

Unless they prefer to let other infectious waves decide for them.

 " 

Another pitfall is the organization of the vaccination campaign.

Vaccinating the French will take time and will require a precise protocol, point out 

Les Échos

: " 

If haste is not a virtue, organization is one,"

says the economic daily

.

The success or fiasco of the vaccination campaign will depend, as with masks, on our ability to secure our supplies and then to deliver the products efficiently.

So far, this has not been our strong point.

 " 

The jasmine revolution, 10 years later

Also on the front page, the faded flowers of the Arab revolutions.

It was in Tunisia, 10 years ago, to the day, on December 17, 2010.

" 

It only took one spark,"

Le Figaro

recalls 

- the self-immolation of a traveling merchant in Sidi Bouzid - to start a gigantic fire throughout the Arab world, from Tunisia to Bahrain via Libya, 'Egypt, Syria and Yemen.

Ten years later, not only is it still burning, but new foci ignite sporadically, from Algeria to Lebanon.

This fire,

specifies

Le Figaro, is that of popular aspirations for more democracy and decent living conditions - political, economic and social demands that have not been met anywhere.

In none of the countries of the Arab Spring, the elections, when they took place, did not produce a democratic regime entrusted to competent managers,

Le Figaro

still notes

.

Instead, the uprisings led to civil war, Islamism or the return of the military, sometimes all three.

 " 

Between bitterness and resilience

Same observation in the other newspapers which linger on the specific case of Tunisia, where this abortive revolution started:  

In Tunisia, the bitter taste of the 10 years of the revolution

 ", headlines

La Croix.

Tunisia between bitterness and resilience,

 ” points out

Le Monde

“ 

Ten years after the self-immolation of the street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi and the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution, disillusionment is massive among the inhabitants of the city, where unemployment is still wreaking havoc,

says

Liberation

.

Decline in public services, unemployed young people, nostalgia for a "strong state" ... If the political advances produced by the Arab Spring of 2011 are indisputable, living conditions remain very difficult for many Tunisians.

Moreover,

Liberation points out, “

this year, Tunisians were the first nationality of origin of migrants who crossed the Mediterranean to illegally reach Europe, according to statistics dating from September.

This is perhaps the greatest failure of the revolution

: it no longer inspires dreams.

 " 

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