Vaccinations in France
Pasteur’s lament
Why France has taken so long to accelerate its vaccination roll-out
The logo outside the vaccination centre shows a red-caped Super Granny zapping the spiked coronavirus with one fist , while clutching a medical syringe in the other. Named “Chez Mauricette”, a nod to the first French patient vaccinated against covid-19, the place sounds more like a friendly local café than a health clinic. In the industrial town of Poissy, north-west of Paris, this is a d eft antidote to grim times, and an effort to confront the peculiar scepticism of the French. “People are exhausted and anxious,” says Karl Olive, the town’s centre-right mayor, and a former football referee : “They need a bit of fun.”
标题中的Pasteur是指法国微生物学家、化学家巴斯德，据说巴斯德是最早研制出疫苗的人。同时，如今法国一家研制疫苗的公司也称为赛诺菲巴斯德公司。 lament 表示“挽歌，悼词” roll-out 源自动词词组roll out，意思是“正式推出（新产品）” cape 意思是“披肩；披风”，red-caped 就表示“披着红色斗篷的” zap 指“（突然而猛烈地）毁坏，杀死” fist 意思是“拳；拳头” clutch 表示“紧握，抓紧” syringe 意思是“（皮下）注射器” deft 指“熟练的；灵巧的” antidote 指“ 解毒药；解毒剂” grim 意思是“暗淡的，令人沮丧的” peculiar 表示“怪异的，不寻常的” scepticism 指“怀疑态度”，形容词是sceptical referee 意思是“裁判”
On a recent weekday afternoon, patients wait calmly to be seen by a doctor before moving into a vaccination cubicle. After opening on January 7th, this centre is now jabbing over 600 arms a week. Alain and Anne-Marie Guillaume celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary there by getting an injection each. Poissy was the first centre to open outside a hospital or care home. Rather than waiting for regional health authorities to draw up a map, Mr Olive put in phone calls to the right people and told them his centre was ready to go. It was approved. “You can’t expect everything from the central state,” says Mr Olive. “Mayors in France can solve problems too.”
Poissy’s can-do defiance says much about the weaknesses of the French state, which contributed to a glacial early vaccination roll-out. This surprised many admirers of France’s well-financed and normally efficient health system. Indeed the number of daily covid-19 deaths in France is now the lowest per head among big European countries. France’s campaign has now picked up pace, overtaking Germany’s in daily doses administered per head. Yet the running total, of 1.2m doses injected by January 26th, is still lower in France than in Germany, Italy and Spain—and way behind Britain. This cannot be blamed only on delays in securing approval and delivering vaccines, which have affected all the EU. Three specific, linked problems explain French dawdling.
cubicle 意思是“（大房间分隔出的）小房间，隔间” defiance 指“违抗；反抗”，动词是defy glacial 表示“冷若冰霜的；冷冰冰的”，名词是 glacier dawdle 意思是“拖延；磨蹭”