UM atUM [S01-ep27]: From the Seventh Wave to the Beach

[Podcast] - Published on July 6, 2022 in Health, Social Issues & Disabilities, Science and Society

In this final issue of “AUM Before Summer,” Mircea Sofonea, an epidemiologist at the Mivegec laboratory, provides an update on the seventh wave of COVID-19. It’s an opportunity to reflect on media coverage of the pandemic and the outlook for research.

For the luckiest among you, you’ll be hitting the road for vacation in a few days; for the rest of you, you’ll have to wait a few more weeks. To help you pass the time, Divergence FM and the University of Montpellier are offering you this moment of relaxation:

You’re lying on the beach. Your fingers are sifting through the warm sand. Through your closed eyelids, the sun shines with a warm, red light. You can smell the sunscreen. A few meters away, a flock of seagulls is fighting over the remains of a tuna sandwich left behind by a distracted little girl.

You’re in a good place. You open your eyes to gaze out at the vast blue sea right in front of you. Listen closely. Above the shouts of children and the cries of doughnut vendors, you can hear them coming toward you. One wave, two waves, three waves, four, five, six… You see it coming… the seventh wave… The one with the rising numbers, the super-positive friends who cancel dinner, Juliette’s teacher who’s still absent, or the plane ticket to Morocco that’s flying away without you.

Following Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Germany, France is now seeing cases rise again. Cases are up 57% across Europe over the past two weeks. They’re up 203% in Malta, 162% in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and 118% in France. So I can already hear you saying:

– “Oh, no! That’s enough—I don’t want to hear about it! ”

Well, we’ll talk about it, but we promise we won’t be alarmist—just providing information and explaining things in simple terms, so we don’t end up believing just anything.

And since we’re fortunate to have Mircea Sofonea with us—an epidemiologist at Mivegec and one of France’s leading experts on the subject—we’ll take this opportunity to take stock of how this crisis has changed the work and lives of these researchers, who have suddenly found themselves in the media spotlight a bit more than they had imagined.

AtUM , you’ve got the schedule—let’s get started!

Production: University of Montpellier/Divergence FM
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Directed by: Adeline Floch’

Tune in to the show “A LUM LA SCIENCE” on Divergence FM 93.9

Keywords: UM atUM, COVID-19, Health, Company