President Macron’s reluctance to impose a third lockdown risks plunging France into the sort of “tragedy” that hit Britain in December, according to one of his top scientific advisers, reports The Times.
Professor Arnaud Fontanet, director of the epidemiological research unit on emerging diseases at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, became the latest figure to warn that the country could pay a heavy price for Mr Macron’s insistence on keeping shops and schools open and travel unrestricted.
Fontanet, a member of the Scientific Council, the French equivalent of Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said the Covid-19 variant first discovered in the UK, which is more transmissible than earlier strains, would be dominant in France by March 1, producing the sort of “exponential” rise in infection seen in Britain.
“And that is why, if we wait too much, we could be surprised by the acceleration of the epidemic, especially as there is a gap between the moment we introduce measures and the one when they have an effect,” he said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche. “This is the tragedy that the English experienced.”
Read more of this report from The Times (subscription required).