Posted on 03/29/2020 5:40:20 PM PDT by Theoria
ÎLE DE NOIRMOUTIER, France — On their peaceful island off France’s Atlantic Coast, some of the locals watched, with growing dread and rage, the images from Paris. As rumors began circulating about an imminent nationwide lockdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, hordes of Parisians jammed into trains, an odd surfboard sometimes sticking out of the crowd.
There was no doubt about their destination.
“Irresponsible and selfish,” thought Dr. Cyrille Vartanian, one of the six physicians on Noirmoutier. With some time to spare — Paris was roughly five hours away — a local mayor, Noël Faucher, moved to block the only bridge to the mainland. But the national authorities said it would be illegal.
“We were powerless because people were not confined to their principal residences,” Mr. Faucher recalled, describing the influx as “an invasion.”
Overnight, the island’s population nearly doubled, to 20,000. Nearly two weeks after the nationwide lockdown went into effect on March 17, there are about 70 suspected cases of the coronavirus on the island.
In France and across Europe, affluent city dwellers have been decamping epicenters of the crisis to their second homes, where proximity to the sea or the mountains lessens the discomfort of confinement and a decent internet link permits remote work. But they also bring fears that they will spread the virus to regions with few hospitals to handle a surge in the sick, putting at greater risk local residents who tend to be older and have limited incomes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
why is this a problem?
‘to regions with few hospitals to handle a surge in the sick, putting at greater risk local residents who tend to be older and have limited incomes.’
The rich and powerful during outbreaks of bubonic plague did the same thing. Unfortunately their entourages had stealth carriers of the disease. They got sick and infected the locals as well. Not to mention that they depleted and drove up the prices of local food and essentials.
This will be a very telling weak in a number of countries and on a lot of fronts (testing for virus, testing for antibodies in the never-diagnosed, treatments). I bet by this time next week we've got the course of this thing pretty well predicted down to a few days. I not, then certainly by the end of the week following.
Good to know if it plays out that way.
It’s just The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe.
Yep. A lot of workers have headed up to the cabins to “work from home”.
Imagine your office in rural woods or on a lake or a river instead of a corporate “millenial appropriate open space no assigned desk” hell hole. People are waking up for early conference calls as the sun comes up across the lake, hot cup of your favorite fresh brewed coffee in hand.
There are going to be industry repercussions as a result of people realizing just how hard they have been worked and the sacrifices they have to make regarding family and friends.
A lot of folks are going to say to themselves, there’s better ways to make a living.
‘to regions with few hospitals to handle a surge in the sick, putting at greater risk local residents who tend to be older and have limited incomes.’
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So nobody can ever flee to a safer area to escape an epidemic? They are going there because they have a place to hide themselves away, not to mix and mingle with the locals. You seem to share the socialist belief that the well-off should not have escape places. Anyway, if they get the disease while they are there and there’s a shortage of beds for them, they can cope with the consequences of ther flight.
'You seem to share the socialist belief that the well-off should not have escape places'
Nope.
The rich and powerful during outbreaks of bubonic plague did the same thing. Unfortunately their entourages had stealth carriers of the disease.
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I doubt that these people have “entourages” as feudal lords did. The French left would peddle envy even if I fled to a small cabin in the woods.
As they say on the street, you do what you have to do. Wouldn’t worry too much about the Left. Somehow they always seem to personally survive these calamities
This was in the Times? They haven’t noticed that a lot of New Yorkers are doing the same thing?
Flocking to the berkshires in semi rural western ma.
“The rich and powerful during outbreaks of bubonic plague did the same thing.”
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story about that, I believe.
I think fairly soon in this country you’re going to see “open season” on cars with out-of-state license plates.
There's a vivid scene as a boatload of infected people try to come ashore and are repelled.
Every time I read one of these "foreigner go home" posts, I recall the image. It's at :39 HERE.
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