In the spotlight: vaccination against Covid-19 begins today in France

Audio 04:44

The Minister of Health Olivier Véran in front of a box containing doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 22, 2020 © AP - Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

By: Norbert Navarro

9 min

Publicity

It's a white vial with a blue cap, about the size of a lump of sugar.

A hand gloved in blue presents it in close-up on the front page of

Parisien Dimanche

.

This bottle is "the

vaccine that will save lives

 ", launches the newspaper. 

Sunday, December 27 is a "

 symbolic day which carries the hope of finally stopping the pandemic

 ", the operation which begins is a " 

considerable exploit

", ignites

Le Parisien Dimanche

.

As assured in

Le Journal du Dimanche

, the French Minister of Health, this vaccine will " 

save a lot of lives

 ".

In the meantime, in this same weekly, Olivier Véran does not rule out the establishment of a third confinement in France.

France, precisely, where reluctance to vaccination is tough.

According to a BVA poll carried out in 32 countries and published by

Le JDD

, 44% of French people say they are ready to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which makes France " 

one of the only four countries where this intention is in the minority, with Lebanon, Croatia and Serbia,

 ”points out

Le Journal du Dimanche

.

Also in the magazine press, the first end-of-year reviews.

2020, which is coming to an end, will have been marked in particular by the many public speeches of Emmanuel Macron.

And this week, the pace of his press interventions has accelerated.

This week, in fact, the French president is present in newsstands, via the weeklies,

L'Express

and

Le Point

.

In

L'Express

, Emmanuel Macron speaks at length about the soul of France.

Evoking the French language, his " 

homeland

 ", the president confided to the weekly

Le Point

that his favorite word is

saxifrage

, a plant more commonly called

pier-pierre

, or

passe-pierre

, (because it grows between the rocks and manages to fracture them).

A good ear ...

During these end-of-year celebrations, the readers of these magazines having the necessary time to feast on these presidential thoughts, will perhaps have remembered above all that the State is in the hands of a literate leader, attached to the mother. -language, and whose communication, in any case, clearly comes, through these two concomitant interventions, to initiate a real turning point with the approach, not-not of 2021, but rather of 2022. To wonder, in all case, if the head of state has ever advocated a silent presidency.

Another assessment in the magazine press, that of relations between France and Africa.

In this regard, 2020 will not be remembered.

2020 should have been a great vintage, it was a piquette.

This year was indeed that of the commemorations of the sixtieth anniversaries of the independence of most of the French-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

Well no !

As the weekly

L'Obs

is forced to underline

, 2020, which was to be the year of its " 

reunion

 " with France, was rather for Africa that of the " 

missed meeting

 ".

First of all because of the coronavirus.

The African cultural season in France, which was to symbolize this reunion, has never ceased to be postponed, now to mid-2021, just like the great Africa-France summit, postponed by one year

 ", points out this magazine .

 Secondly,

because of the

weight of history

 ” which is “ 

not easy to overcome

”.

As

L'Obs

points out

, “ 

all meritorious attempts to go beyond the legacy of the mythical and nevertheless very real Françafrique have failed.

Emmanuel Macron, who understands the limits of "

everything military

", wanted to establish a dialogue with an African youth who is growing up in a different world: but how can it be audible when these same young people risk everything to join, sometimes at the risk of their life, a Europe that does not want them, wonders this weekly?

Or when French society is itself crossed by fierce debates on racism, on black identity in France?

 ".

So ?

So at the dawn of 2021,

L'Obs

pleads for a new meeting between France and Africa, this continent which “ 

demands proof of love, and not just words.

It is not too late

 ”, wants to believe this magazine.

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  • Newspaper

  • Coronavirus

  • Health and medicine

  • Africa

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Covid-19: kick-off of the vaccination campaign in France