Welcome on board Hedy
CV cases rising in France again.
This afternoon, a paramedic just in front of me in the little local bookshop answered his phone, v audibly. Yes, he said, he'd been called out to a family in our town with CV. Yes, the father, who is quadraplegic, has tested positive, as have the mother and daughter. And the pet rabbit (French gallows humour for you). The nurse who usually goes in to provide care for the father is refusing to do so, saying it's too risky.
He wound up by saying there is clearly a cluster there, and cases are rising fast in our town more generally.
If I hadn't been in the bookshop at the same time as him, I'd never have known.
And I was so glad he had that loud conversation just in front of me, raising his face mask to do so and then slipping it down again, beneath his nose...
(He was buying Süskind's Perfume, which wouldn't be my chosen reading in the context.)
In other news, Macron went walkabout in a postcolonial minefield in Beirut today.
I have just driven 2hrs to drop the DC off at ex's for the holiday.
There is really bad air pollution here, as there often is in summer, exacerbated by major wildfires recently and by the heatwave. Signs on all the major roads saying to reduce speed by 20km/hr due to pollution. I couldn't do that, as 75% of other drivers were doing 10-20km above the limit and going 30-40km/hr slower wasn't safe, not to mention all the usual blithe undertaking, tailgating and zigzagging motorbikes. I did 10-15km/hr below the limit. Only 2 or 3 other cars were doing less than the limit.
Humanity is well fucked.
As was confirmed by the IPCC member interviewed on the news while I drove home, who patiently answered the question, "Are all these heatwaves a sign that climate change is real, then?"
I have nowt to say about Brexit, as you can tell.