``@1@2FRENCH Covid map, January 29 schools, aids, and other measures, here are the latest news yf876d

Amid risks of a push back from a population wearied by successive restrictions, the French government is mulling tougher anti-Covid curbs - including a third lockdown - after conceding a nightly curfew was failing to suppress the spread of the virus.

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When it comes to deciding on new measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron and his government are walking a tightrope. Should another nationwide lockdown – the third in less than 12 months – be quickly imposed on the French, as scientists are advocating? Or should the government wait a few more weeks, or even opt for a less strict approach, so as not to alienate part of the population?

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It is a decision that has left the state’s leaders in a quandary. The French, like so much of the rest of the world, are increasingly succumbing to a generalised state of weariness after nearly a year of living under Covid-19 restrictions. But government spokesman Gabriel Attal left little room for doubt over what the government’s next move might be after the council of ministers met at the Élysée Palace on January 27 to discuss the pandemic response.

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"The 6pm curfew has been relatively ineffective. We have data to show that ... at this stage, it does not sufficiently slow down the circulation of the virus," Attal said. Faced with this situation, the scenarios under consideration range "from maintaining the current framework to a very tight containment", he added.

Health Minister Olivier Véran spoke on January 28 of the need to "avoid a pandemic within the pandemic".  He said that the virus is circulating more widely and is "spreading faster every week". The effectiveness of the curfew, he added, is now "waning".

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>> Covid-19: Everything you need to know about getting vaccinated in France

At the time of the first lockdown, in March 2020, Macron did not hesitate to invoke military language when he imposed a national lockdown a few days after the closure of schools. "We are at war," he told the French who while caught off guard by the sudden shutdown, were largely willing to abide by the restrictions.

 
Though today’s discourse has clearly evolved, it seems the government would need to do far more to gain the confidence and consent of the French if it decides to shut down the country again.

"There is a feeling of weariness, doubt and of a need to question, all of this is legitimate. And in making a political decision, you must take into account social acceptance,” Christophe Castaner, the speaker of parliament and head of Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) party, told France Inter radio on Wednesday.

'People can't take it anymore'

The issue of social acceptance first cropped up in the early 1980s when French politicians contemplated how to convince the French to be vaccinated. Support for the government’s vaccination campaign depended on acquiring sufficient buy-in or social acceptance from the population.

However, the latest opinion polls show that the French are today lagging on social acceptance. "We have to be vigilant about social acceptance as it’s a very important issue, because under the first lockdown it was 85 percent, during the second it was 65 percent, and now it is 40 percent," a government source told AFP.

When they meet with their constituents, many politicians can sense they are no longer in the same frame of mind as last spring. Frustration and fatigue have set in after almost a year in which ordinary lives have been upended.

"We sense that people are much more anxious, that they can't take it anymore, that they are tense and stressed, especially small shopkeepers who are afraid of not surviving a new lockdown similar to that of spring 2020," Caroline Janvier, an LREM MP from Loiret, told FRANCE 24. "But more than anger, I see problems related to mental health, problems of depression and isolation, especially among the elderly.”

Recent events in the Netherlands, where a protest movement and riots took place after the announcement of a Covid-19 curfew last weekend, would not have escaped Macron’s attention. The police arrested 250 people on Sunday evening and another 70 on Monday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the riots “the worst in 40 years”, in a country that has not seen a curfew since the Second World War.

 
At the same time in France, the hashtag "#JeNeMeReconfineraiPas" (#I will not go back into lockdown) appeared on Twitter, where it went viral with more than 40,000 shares. Some of the posts even invited civil disobedience.

What's the difference between the various Covid-19 vaccines available in France? How will getting inoculated work? And what happens after the jab? France's vaccination campaign has raised a wealth of questions. FRANCE 24 answers 20 of them here.

After a very slow start, France’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign sharply accelerated in January, passing the one million mark of inoculations on January 23. On Saturday one million French people were reported to have been inoculated against Covid-19. Available first and foremost to nursing home residents and healthcare professionals over 50, the government opened the door to people over 75 and anyone at high-risk for Covid-19 from January 18.

FRANCE 24 takes a closer look at France's vaccination effort as it rolls up its sleeves to put an end to Covid-19.

What vaccines are available in France and what is the difference between them?
For the moment, only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). AstraZeneca's vaccine is likely to get the green light for the European market imminently. All of these vaccines have good results in terms of efficacy (more than 90 percent for Pfizer's and Moderna's iterations).

The difference between the first Covid-19 vaccines available in Europe lies primarily in how they need to be stored. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines must be kept at -80°C and used quickly after they come out of that deep freeze (five days at most), while doses of the Moderna vaccine can be stored at -20°C and kept in a refrigerator for a month before injection.

Are the vaccines also effective against the new Covid-19 variants?
Their effectiveness against the new variants remains to be seen. Researchers have said they are not concerned about the vaccines’ effectiveness against the variant first detected in the United Kingdom, but the latest results regarding the South African variant have raised more questions. Meanwhile, a strain detected in Brazil and Japan is "the most worrying of all", Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, told AFP. Indeed, tests show that variant could be able to escape from the antibodies meant to neutralise it, sidestepping the body's natural defence memory and the immunity that comes with it.

US biotechnology firm Moderna said on January 25 that lab studies showed its Covid-19 vaccine remained effective against variants of the coronavirus first identified in the UK and South Africa. That positive news was somewhat tempered by the finding that there was a six-fold reduction in the level of highly potent neutralising antibodies produced against the South African variant (B.1.351). The company said it would "out of an abundance of caution" test adding a second booster of its vaccine – meaning three shots in total – and has begun preclinical studies on a booster specifically for the South African variant.
Why is the French vaccine slow in coming to market?
The results of the phase 1 and 2 trials unveiled in December of the vaccine developed by the French multinational Sanofi were positive for adults between the ages of 18 and 49, but the immune responses elicited in older subjects were deemed disappointing. According to Sanofi, a new trial with "an improved antigen formula" is set to begin in February. The third phase will not be able to begin before the second half of 2021, however, which pushes back the vaccine's eventual availability on the market to the end of this year, at best.

On January 25, France's Pasteur Institute, named for 19th-century French vaccine pioneer Louis Pasteur, announced it was ending development of a vaccine it was working on based on an existing measles vaccine with US pharmaceutical firm Merck after clinical trial results proved disappointing. The institute stressed it would be continuing its work on two other vaccine projects using different methods.

I've already had Covid-19. Do I need to get vaccinated?
There is currently no data on the potential benefits of being vaccinated against Covid-19 after having been infected, France's Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) health authority has explained. Someone who has already contracted Covid-19 could still benefit from the vaccine, even if "the risk, even theoretical, among those people appears ... very low", France's Society for Infectious Pathology (SPILF) explained. In such cases, one must respect a minimum three-month wait after the onset of symptoms and not present persistent symptoms.
Should I be tested for Covid-19 before getting inoculated?
No, not unless there has been contact with someone who is sick. In the case of a previous Covid-19 infection, after consulting with one's doctor, waiting three months after the onset of symptoms is enough. But otherwise France's HAS does not recommend antibody testing to decide whether or not to be vaccinated because it "doesn’t provide proof of immunity to the virus".
Do I have a choice over what vaccine I will get?
Health Minister Olivier Véran has been fairly clear on the matter. "Today, we have two approved vaccines," he told BFMTV on January 7. "They are two messenger RNA vaccines that have the same efficacy, so there is no need to question the choice of vaccine." To be clear, it isn't possible in France to be picky about which jab one gets. "We aren't going to start with: 'For me, I prefer an attenuated vaccine and, me, I prefer an RNA vaccine...' We'd never manage," said Véran.
What are the side effects?
France's (HAS) has listed the most frequent episodes reported in the seven days following the first injection. With the Pfizer-BioNTech Cominraty vaccine, the most frequently observed side effects are soreness at the site of the injection (in 80 percent of cases), fatigue (in more than 60 percent of cases), headaches (in more than 50 percent of cases), as well as muscle pain and chills. However, these side effects were seen as mild and wore off in under 48 hours. With the Moderna vaccine, the main reactions observed also include soreness at the point of injection (more than 90 percent of cases), fatigue (70 percent), headaches (more than 64 percent) and muscle pain (more than 61 percent).

 
Have there been any serious side effects after the vaccines were administered?
During the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine trials, four participants developed temporary facial paralysis, the causes of which are still being investigated, out of the more than 43,000 people taking part in Phase 3 testing. That was also the case for four participants in the Moderna vaccine trials (three in the vaccinated group, one in the placebo group) out of more than 30,000 people taking part in