FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris notes that may 10 was a day of rolling live coverage for French media. France Info, Le Monde, France 24, 20 Minutes — all tracked hour by hour the sanitary flight's departure from Tenerife, its landing at Le Bourget, and the Prime Minister's announcement: one of the five French passengers repatriated is showing 'symptoms.' The government's wording is deliberately cautious — 'showing symptoms' rather than 'infected.' The repatriated passenger has been placed in strict isolation and contact tracing has begun. France Info reminds readers that hantavirus does not spread between humans by air — transmission is via contact with infected rodents. The risk for other passengers on the flight is therefore 'close to zero,' experts told France 24. But for French public opinion, scarred by Covid, 'symptoms' is enough to trigger anxiety. 20 Minutes attempted to identify patient zero: Leo Schilperoord, a Dutch naturalist guide who worked aboard, presents the most compatible epidemiological profile — regular contact with the wildlife of the Antarctic territories visited by the ship.