As a Brit in France it’s been interesting to see how the two countries have responded culturally to a mass 💉 campaign. That whole “roll up your sleeves, get the kettle on and get organised together” approach that has served the U.K. so well just does not exist here. Medical care is highly individualised and not mass market. People choose their dr, choose their specialists, choose their lab and X-ray provider, even choose their surgeon etc and it’s generally at a time and place of their choosing. There are virtually no multi-service medical centres here, in the big cities at least. Généralistes mostly work in their own - maybe sharing a part time secretary. No nurses, no clinics, no paramedical services. And no NHS records or administrative support to do all the ringing around etc.
So for a french Dr to suddenly become a mini vax centre is a huge ask, logistically and practically. I’ve even seen tweets from drs saying they had to go and buy a bigger fridge for their office: all drugs and vaccines are held in pharmacies here, you collect it and trot off to the dr to have it administered.
Another thing. There are no mass vaccinations campaigns in schools here. I remember queuing up to get my BCG and my rubella jags at school. Nothing like that here - each individual parent organises to go to the dr, get the prescription, collect the vaccine, back to the dr for every single childhood vaccination. So for french people, the idea of pitching up en masse, to a tent or a sports hall etc is pretty far out. And the idea that the vaccine might be delivered by a volunteer / student / vet!!! Insupportable!!
These things rarely get mentioned in the newspaper articles. But Macron’s ill-judged / mis-translated remarks aside, there are many other reasons why things are going so slowly here.