A l'UM la science [S01-ep27]: From the seventh wave to the beach

In this last issue of A l'UM la science before the summer, Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist at the Mivegec laboratory, gives us an update on the seventh wave of Covid. It's also an opportunity to look back at the media coverage of the pandemic and the prospects for future research.

For the luckiest among you, you'll be heading off on vacation in a few days' time; for the rest of you, it'll be a few weeks yet. To help you wait, Divergence FM and the University of Montpellier offer you this moment of relaxation:

You're lying on the beach. Your fingers scratch the warm sand. Through your closed eyelids, the sun radiates a warm, red light. You smell of sun cream. A few yards from you, a pack of gulls are fighting over the remains of a tuna sandwich forgotten by a distracted little girl.

You're fine. You open your eyes to gaze into the deep blue, right there in front of you. Tense your ears. Over the cries of children and doughnut sellers, they come to you. One wave, two waves, three waves, four, five, six... You see it coming... the seventh wave... The one with the curves going up, the super-positive friends cancelling dinner, Juliette's mistress still absent or the plane ticket to Morocco flying off without you.

After Portugal, the UK and Germany, it's France's turn to see the number of contaminations rise again. +57% in Europe over the last two weeks. +203% in Malta, +162% in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, +118% in France. So I can already hear you:

- " Ah no! That's enough I don't want to hear about it !"

Well, we'll tell you all about it, but we promise we won't do any doom and gloom, just inform and popularize, so we don't let ourselves be told anything and everything.

And because we're lucky enough to have with us Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist at Mivegec and one of France's most knowledgeable modelers on the subject, we'll be taking the opportunity to take stock of what this crisis has changed in the work and lives of these researchers, suddenly forced to expose themselves to the media a little more than they'd imagined.

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Production: Université de Montpellier/Divergence FM
Animation : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews : Aline Périault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Directed by : Adeline Floch'

Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9