Macron’s infection is fuel to the fire for vaccine naysayers
Despite being the country of Pasteur, slayer of smallpox, only 54% of French adults say they are willing to get a Covid-19 shot
When King Louis XVI, his two brothers and his sister-in-law were inoculated against smallpox in 18th-century France, the public worried about the risks. Though the experiment was a success, even sparking a new type of hairstyle, the doubts never went away. As vaccines took off during the 19th century, the age of Pasteur, so did resistance, apathy and distrust.
A similar challenge faces French President Emmanuel Macron, who’s holed up in the Élysée Palace after testing positive for Covid-19, triggering knock-on quarantines for several European leaders. He’s scrambling to prepare his country, exhausted by repeated lockdowns, for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2...
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