Why France’s vaccination roll-out has been so slow

THE LOGO outside the vaccination centre shows a red-caped Super Granny zapping the spiked coronavirus with one fist, while clutching a medical syringe in the other. Named “Chez Mauricette”, a nod to the first French patient vaccinated against covid-19, the place sounds more like a friendly local café than a health clinic. In the industrial town of Poissy, north-west of Paris, this is a deft antidote to grim times, and an effort to confront the peculiar scepticism of the French. “People are exhausted and anxious,” says Karl Olive, the town’s centre-right mayor, and a former football referee: “They need a bit of fun.”On a recent weekday afternoon, patients wait calmly to be seen by a doctor before moving into a vaccination cubicle. After opening on January 7th, this centre is now jabbing over 600 arms a week. Alain and Anne-Marie Guillaume celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary there by getting an injection each. Poissy was the first centre to open outside a hospital or care home. Rather than waiting for regional health authorities to draw up a map, Mr Olive put in phone calls to the right people and told them his centre was ready to go. It was approved. “You can’t expect everything from the central state,” says Mr Olive. “Mayors in France can solve problems too.”