Medics despair as France’s ‘third way’ virus strategy flails
France is now Europe’s latest coronavirus danger zone, but President Emmanuel Macron is resisting calls for dramatic actionBy ANGELA CHARLTON Associated PressApril 1, 2021, 8:34 AM• 6 min readAMIENS, France — As France battles a new virus surge that many believe was avoidable, intensive care nurse Stephanie Sannier manages her stress and sorrow by climbing into her car after a 12-hour shift, blasting music and singing as loud as she can.“It allows me to breathe,” she says, “and to cry.”People with COVID-19 occupy all the beds in her ICU ward in President Emmanuel Macron’s hometown hospital in the medieval northern city of Amiens. Three have died in the past three days. The vast medical complex is turning away critically ill patients from smaller towns nearby for lack of space.With France now Europe’s latest virus danger zone, Macron on Wednesday ordered temporary school closures nationwide and new travel restrictions. But he resisted calls for a strict lockdown, instead sticking broadly to his strategy, a “third way” between freedom and confinement meant to keep both infections and a restless populace under control until mass vaccinations take over.The government refuses to acknowledge failure and blames delayed vaccine deliveries and a disobedient public for
