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French lifts to open start of Spring 2021 ?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Sorry. Didn't realise it was behind a paywall.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
You can still read the article, albeit on only half a screen.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Isn't France like the UK though, good at some things but less good at others? France has been very good in maintaining restrictions despite political incentives to relax them - and as a result has held back the surge the UK has been having. But they didn't seem to do the same in having stakes in a portfolio of different vaccines which at the moment is (hopefully) putting the UK in a good position for the future.

But in terms of skiing opening up? Their track record so far suggests they will be cautious about relaxing restrictions which means that if the lifts open at all it won't be for many. Certainly not for the British unless our Covid cases drop unimaginably far in the next couple of weeks.
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j b wrote:
But they didn't seem to do the same in having stakes in a portfolio of different vaccines which at the moment is (hopefully) putting the UK in a good position for the future.

France is part of the EU and so will get supplies from the EU purchase scheme, which I believe currently contains a portfolio of six vaccines. Unfortunately, the only two that have been approved don’t make up a particularly large percentage of the overall order, so that is why EU countries are struggling for supplies. When AZ is approved, the situation will hopefully improve as they make up the bulk of the order. The poor speed of the French rollout is their own doing though.
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Scarlet wrote:

France is part of the EU and so will get supplies from the EU purchase scheme, which I believe currently contains a portfolio of six vaccines. Unfortunately, the only two that have been approved don’t make up a particularly large percentage of the overall order, so that is why EU countries are struggling for supplies. When AZ is approved, the situation will hopefully improve as they make up the bulk of the order. The poor speed of the French rollout is their own doing though.


The EU was very smug at beating Pfizer down on price but this also means that Pfizer has been less motivated at delivering vaccines or ensuring continuity of supply to the EU compared to other customers. The EU medicines agency (EMA) was hacked by the Russians and leaked emails (confirmed as genuine) show some of the usual politicking with the Germans putting a lot of pressure to buy the Pfizer vaccine despite concerns about the quality control in the factories.

The French govt were boasting they had the best stock of vaccines in Europe yesterday but that seems to miss the point that the stock is better inside people's bodies. Things should improve when a less logistically challenging vaccine is available.

Along with the other cockups it should be remembered back last spring that France had a huge amount of difficulty increasing bed capacity - finally erecting a single army field hospital in the Alsace. Macron was gobsmacked that the Brits managed to build the seven nightingale hospitals, even if these don't seem to have been used. He claimed it was impossible. If you look at total deaths and cases between the UK and France there is not a huge difference given that France had a much stricter lockdown. I certainly wouldn't hail it at a success. At the same time the number of excess deaths for 2020 is not a huge figure either. It is true that the new variant is causing havoc in the UK but it has been predicted it will be at similar levels in France by March.

All this means that the wider public probably won't be vaccinated until the autumn - which could impact into 2022 and the new variant probably means lifts staying such this season.
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@davidof, The UK doesn't have the people to staff the nightingale hospitals, they looked good as a PR stunt though.
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rjs wrote:
@davidof, The UK doesn't have the people to staff the nightingale hospitals, they looked good as a PR stunt though.


Yes they do, all ex front lines nursing staff have been contacted with regard to working in them or normal.hodpitals, mrs is ex nurse, midwife and she is now a health visitor, she would have been redeployed had they needed her skills, all the staff from private hospitals were also to be used, IIRC there was over 100,000 volunteers with the skills needed.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
And meanwhile .............. back on track ................ when do the French ski resorts look like opening?
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My son and family have been staying since before Christmas with his partner's mother, in Provence. They drove up to Les Saisies today, for a week or so in the mountains. They are renting an apartment belonging to French friends who were our neighbours when we had an apartment there - mates rates. They have a three year old and a crawling baby so probably wouldn't be out on the slopes even if they were open - but they'll have some fun in the snow and it gives her mother a break from visitors! The rest of the family is very envious.
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@skimastaaah, Folks I'm chatting with expecting another lockdown in 2 weeks in France. Realistically, it may well be late spring skiing in high resorts only, providing it's economic to hire staff etc for a few weeks
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chocksaway wrote:
@skimastaaah, Folks I'm chatting with expecting another lockdown in 2 weeks in France. Realistically, it may well be late spring skiing in high resorts only, providing it's economic to hire staff etc for a few weeks


That's what everyone is saying, from the 30th January. Sad.

No idea if there is any truth in that but I wouldn't be surprised either. One big issue is testing, the French government boasts about doing the "most" testing in Europe but is it effective. The Brits sequence thousands of tests per day which is how they discovered the variants, the French sequence practically zero so they have no idea what variants are in the country and for how long.

We hear today that the Germans got around the EU procurement issues by placing "side orders" and paying top dollar for vaccines. This isn't confirmed as true but hard to see how the Germans have a supply of vaccine that the French don't have.

Also here that you can wave practically any old bit of paper you've printed off at home at the French border controls and they accept it for entry to the country. 800 people arrived from Brazil today, a country with another variant. As the border force say, how do they know what a British PCR test looks like, they just look for the words "covid" and "negative" on the piece of paper.

Macron has achieved the miracle of making BoJo look competent.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
davidof wrote:
chocksaway wrote:
@skimastaaah, Folks I'm chatting with expecting another lockdown in 2 weeks in France. Realistically, it may well be late spring skiing in high resorts only, providing it's economic to hire staff etc for a few weeks


That's what everyone is saying, from the 30th January. Sad.

No idea if there is any truth in that but I wouldn't be surprised either. One big issue is testing, the French government boasts about doing the "most" testing in Europe but is it effective. The Brits sequence thousands of tests per day which is how they discovered the variants, the French sequence practically zero so they have no idea what variants are in the country and for how long.

We hear today that the Germans got around the EU procurement issues by placing "side orders" and paying top dollar for vaccines. This isn't confirmed as true but hard to see how the Germans have a supply of vaccine that the French don't have.

Also here that you can wave practically any old bit of paper you've printed off at home at the French border controls and they accept it for entry to the country. 800 people arrived from Brazil today, a country with another variant. As the border force say, how do they know what a British PCR test looks like, they just look for the words "covid" and "negative" on the piece of paper.

Macron has achieved the miracle of making BoJo look competent.


Or maybe all countries and governments are doing their best trying to juggle a dozen red hot balls at the same time, sometimes they are going to drop one.
It's easy for everyone to criticise not so easy to actually make decisions.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@robs1, I think you are right, we all have our opinions of how it would have been much better to.........
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
It seems the French don't need to have the lifts open to have traffic jams.

Radio Riviera wrote:

Motorists stuck on the region’s roads returning from ski resorts - Hundreds of motorists returning from ski resorts in the Alpes Maritimes region found themselves stuck in very heavy traffic jams on Sunday afternoon. In an attempt to return ahead of the 6pm curfew, many who had taken to the hills over the weekend in the resorts of Tinée and Valberg were blocked on the road taking up to an hour to drive just ten kilometres.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Pressure is being piled on the government to open the ski lifts. So far no news or rumours about which way it is going.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I read a piece from Goldman Sachs today...one astonishing thing:

Wales, population 3million, does 4,000 Covid genome sequencing tests every week.
France, the whole of France, has not done 4,000 in the whole of this pandemic Shocked Shocked Shocked

Castigating the UK for the "British Variant" is an absolute joke...but hey-ho, c'est la vie.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Timc, this is not news! Twisted Evil
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
France is apparently on target to vaccinate 2.4 million by the end of February. I can’t see ski lifts opening ( with all the internal travel) with these limited numbers, much less the chance of People allowed to enter the country.
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rungsp wrote:
I read a piece from Goldman Sachs today...one astonishing thing:

Wales, population 3million, does 4,000 Covid genome sequencing tests every week.
France, the whole of France, has not done 4,000 in the whole of this pandemic Shocked Shocked Shocked

Castigating the UK for the "British Variant" is an absolute joke...but hey-ho, c'est la vie.


Or "dyna fywyd" as we say in the valleys Very Happy
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rungsp...given that the initial outbreak of this "UK Strain" was Kent...there is probably above average chance it came in via the port of Dover or Folkestone Eurotunnel and went out too.

UK just blamed as a world leader in Geonome Sequencing.........or poorly reported and sensationalised.

France seems to have followed its usual protectionism stance and put all its eggs in the Sanofi basket........which to date looks an error
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snowhound wrote:
France is apparently on target to vaccinate 2.4 million by the end of February.


France has a population of 65 million, currently 70,000 Covid related deaths, 2.4 million vaccinations represents 3.5% of the population, not at all impressive, not really conducive to opening up much of France at all either.
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No, for any trips to the Alps this season they would really need to ramp up the volume of vaccinations.

OR

allow entry if you have proof of vaccine.......a negative test would not be enough as you could catch it whist there and pass on
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@stefoy4me, The vaccines are to stop people dying, there isn't any evidence that they stop the spread of the virus.
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@rjs, errr... you haven’t been paying attention, not evidence as such, but as expected it’s looking like vaccinations slow spread. https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=4716963#4716963
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@under a new name, I have been paying attention, "slow" is not the same as "stop".
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@rjs, pedant.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@rjs, so...let's suppose...the vaccines slow the spread of virus by 99%, would that be good enough?
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
The only real hope I have at this point is for an Austrian-style locals-only opening. I just can't see them wanting thousands of people criss-crossing France all through February, especially with whatever new variants are out there.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@hold_my_biere, leads on to the question, what or who is a local?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@hold_my_biere, trouble is, you have all the costs of running the show but much reduced income, not likely to happen.
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Poster: A snowHead
@Jonny996, This is a local slope, for local people!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I'm following this forum since 2008. Never thought we would be one day discussing vaccines extensively in relation to skiing Laughing
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
French news today is reporting they are expecting the 'UK Strain' to be the dominant strain in France from Mid-Feb.

I think unfortunately this probably means confinement is once again on the way. I best get out skinning to make the most of it!
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@zinekar,
Quote:


I'm following this forum since 2008

You've got one more post (27 in 13 years) left for the next 364 days.....make sure to use it wisely wink
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Quote:

Macron has achieved the miracle of making BoJo look competent.


While simultaneously having a much smaller infection and death rate. Perception and facts don’t always agree
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@johnE, But the UK death rate should start falling soon due to the vaccine. France probably won't.
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johnE wrote:
Quote:

Macron has achieved the miracle of making BoJo look competent.


While simultaneously having a much smaller infection and death rate. Perception and facts don’t always agree


bof, 70K vs 85K 2.8 million vs 3.4 million, you have a different definition of "much smaller" than most and given the new variant seems to be more prevalent in the UK it might just be the UK is ahead of the curve at the moment.

But yes, the two very strict lockdowns (1h/1k) and religious mask wearing compared to the UK do seem to have flattened the curve a bit more. If the Brits has been prepared to accept a bit more restriction to their liberty they might have better figures now.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
johnE wrote:
Quote:

Macron has achieved the miracle of making BoJo look competent.


While simultaneously having a much smaller infection and death rate. Perception and facts don’t always agree


Its difficult to compare death rates due to different ways of counting but France is testing far fewer than the UK so of course we have more cases.
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@robs1, I wouldn't want to be point scoring at the moment.

At least Macron is aware he is in a fragile situation (unlike Johnson in December) and isn't proposing massive relaxation.
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so that's a no to resorts opening next week for BoJo to get some piste skiing in!?????
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