France's Heat Toll Soars

[Barbarossa]

It's August. France is notorious for "shutting down" in August, 'cos everyone goes on holiday.

I suspect the ones left behind, the sick, the old, and the infirm, are the ones who are dying, because there's no-one to look after them.

[j2k4]

I don't quite buy this line of reasoning, at least in the numbers we are seeing in France.

Even granting a general state of unpreparedness, the theory almost presupposes a physiological or genetic insufficiency in the French; which is certainly not the case.

There has to be more to it than is yet being reported.

[lynx]

Maybe it's some sort of US death ray, but since most of the French are on holiday, only those left behind are affected. That will teach them to diss the yanks.

[j2k4]

Originally posted by lynx@20 August 2003 - 11:40
Maybe it's some sort of US death ray, but since most of the French are on holiday, only those left behind are affected. That will teach them to diss the yanks.

An intriguing possibility, Lynx, but if it were so, we would target the young, healthy holiday-goers, not the ones left behind.

[Barbarossa]

It's not confined to France either!

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese health authorities say 1,316 people died from a heatwave that gripped the Iberian nation.

The figures were from a preliminary Health Ministry report on deaths between late July and August 12, news agency Lusa reported late on Wednesday. The estimate is based on a comparison with the same period last year.

The heatwave was the hottest and longest recorded in Portugal. It fanned the country's worst forest fires in more than 20 years, with an area almost as big as Luxembourg destroyed and at least 15 people killed in blazes.

The heatwave affected much of Europe, causing forest fires and a number of deaths across the Continent.

The number of deaths in Portugal were less than during a 1981 heatwave and about the same as one in 1991 because of emergency measures put in place because of the fires, Lusa said.

[RGX]

well, we in the uk got 101 degree weather, and were only a few miles from france. We're definatly not prepared for the weather, but as far as I remeber no real huge number of deaths

Althigh apparently now we're getting great whites around england because the climate suits them better

[lynx]

I'm not sure we have the reporting procedures for working out how many die from high temperatures, so things in the UK may be as bad or even worse than other places.

[Rat Faced]

Originally posted by RGX@23 August 2003 - 14:08
well, we in the uk got 101 degree weather, and were only a few miles from france. We're definatly not prepared for the weather, but as far as I remeber no real huge number of deaths

Althigh apparently now we're getting great whites around england because the climate suits them better

They have a 6 month waiting list, before the hospital lets them in to pronounce them dead

[lynx]

Originally posted by Rat Faced+23 August 2003 - 16:05--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Rat Faced @ 23 August 2003 - 16:05)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-RGX@23 August 2003 - 14:08
well, we in the uk got 101 degree weather, and were only a few miles from france. We&#39;re definatly not prepared for the weather, but as far as I remeber no real huge number of deaths

Althigh apparently now we&#39;re getting great whites around england because the climate suits them better&nbsp;

They have a 6 month waiting list, before the hospital lets them in to pronounce them dead [/b][/quote]
That&#39;s disgusting, you would think that those great whites, being unregistered immigrants, would get far better treatment.

[leonidas]

Originally posted by zapjb@20 August 2003 - 06:03
I just don&#39;t get how 5,000 people die from the heat in 3 weeks. It&#39;s sad, yes. This should&#39;ve never happened. It&#39;s not the 3rd world. They have clean safe water, it&#39;s not the desert. I&#39;m a USA citizen. Can a French citizen explain this? Thanks. Peace.

Our politics, are just a piece of crap. The french medical system use to be the best in the world, but since 5 or 7 years ago, there is no politic willing to spend money to develop it.
We have for example a lack of doctors & surgerists, while in our medical universities thousands of students can&#39;t access to specialised medical formations, as only the very very best of them are selected. And it&#39;s not a matter of quality as you could think, but only a matter of money.
There&#39;s also a problem with the nurses as for economical matter hospitals aren&#39;t gift the suficient credits to employ new ones. So most of them have to work 10 or 12 hrs a day, and without a free day for 15 days. Nurses had manifested pacificly in 1999 to denounce their working conditions, & they were dispatched, sprinkled by hight presure water by the CRS (The french security police corps they sent for manifestations).
These are some of the main problems.
The "socialists" (equivalent of democrats in USA), didn&#39;t do a lot to change the situation & the right-wing coalition( equivalent of US republicans) now in charge of the country, are doing worse&#33; They&#39;ve just edit a new law which stop the refunding of a lot of medicines.
Also you might take into account that France isn&#39;t usualy a so hot region, & no one exept some fuckin rich people in the mediteranean coast has a cooling system in his house.
That&#39;s why lots of people, the very majority of them old, died because medical structures were overfilled.

France now is just following the american and english way, & It&#39;s strange that there isn&#39;t already a french tv show about hospitals like this american one with Georges Clooney.