How France’s data scientists are upstaging its administration

WHEN THE pandemic broke out, a 23-year-old French data scientist was working in his bedroom at his parents’ house in a Savoyard valley. Guillaume Rozier began to plot, and tweet, cases of covid-19 in Italy against those in France. His data analysis swiftly became a popular covid-19-tracking site. This April it spawned “ViteMaDose” (QuickMyJab), a website that in two clicks scans disparate French health sites for scarce vaccination slots. It now draws 2m-3m views each day.France’s geeks are taking on its mighty bureaucrats. Armed with simplicity, clarity and algorithms, they are defeating the administration’s fondness for complexity, confusion and rules. Other new sites, such as Covidliste or Covid Anti Gaspi, match unused vaccine doses in fridges to willing takers nearby. “How”, an astonished talk-show host asked Mr Rozier, “have you managed to create this system that the French administration hasn’t?”