They didn't die because of the lack of air conditioning, but because of the lack of general measures ( hydratation, regular medical monitoring ) to help old senile fragile people withstanding to an unusual fucking heat wave.
I'm not saying this isn't bad for our image, but you're grossly exaggerating it.
You are kidding right... Wasn't that bad right...
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French authorities have announced a plan of action after officials revealed an estimated 3,000 people have died of heat-related causes in the past two weeks.
Government officials, including Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, held an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss ways of dealing with what Mattei has described as a "veritable epidemic" of deaths.
A "Plan Blanc" or "White Plan" has been put into action, with doctors and nurses being recalled from leave, some morgue workers called out of retirement, and further 1,000 hospital beds being made available from Friday.
The plan also calls for the nation's hospitals to appoint a "crisis group" to ensure that resources are available to care for the victims.
Emergency-room doctors criticized the French government for not acting quickly enough to deal with the crisis, which is now in its second week. Many of the ministers, including Raffarin, had been on vacation.
"Over the last three or four days, it's been quite difficult," one doctor said. "But we're very pleased there is a structure now."
At Hopital Avicenne near Paris, a nurse complained that she was not able to care properly for the sick because the hospital has no air conditioning and no ice.
"We really do feel quite desperate," said Katia Guiermet, an emergency services nurse. "We don't feel incompetent, but it's really difficult for people suffering from heat stroke when you don't have any ice.
"It's very difficult to tell people who brought their grandmothers to hospital to tell them they had died, and of course, people couldn't understand because they often feel the hospital can sort all problems out. But that hasn't been the case."
She said the medical team had worked eight days without respite and was exhausted.
French officials blame the high death toll in part on the length of the heat wave and the fact that Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning.
General Funeral Services, which has approximately 25 percent of the funeral home business in France, reported to the Health Ministry that it had handled 3,230 deaths across the country in the previous week, a number 37 percent above the number of deaths for the same week a year ago.
Oh yes . Officials blame the lack of air conditioning in big cities ( note that it's not because they forgot to use it, but because they don't have one ). Of course, since it's the fault of old people for not preparing for an unusual heat wave of which they had little to no warning, not theirs for not being perceptive enough . Medical personnel and experts blame the lack of general medical monitoring and hydratation, wether for lone old people or old people's houses, as well as the lack of preparation or warning about the magnitude of the heat wave. Air conditioning is part of the measures that would have saved lives, but it's by no means the sole reason people died.
theski wrote:You are kidding right... Wasn't that bad right...
Unless you can conclusively prove that my statements meant "not bad at all - duh" instead of "nothing to be proud of, but still not as bad as SirNitram made it out to be", I suggest you shut the fuck up. I have some feeling that the latter is more likely than the former.
They didn't die because of the lack of air conditioning, but because of the lack of general measures ( hydratation, regular medical monitoring ) to help old senile fragile people withstanding to an unusual fucking heat wave.
I meant that air conditioning wasn't the only reason, not that it wasn't completely unrelated.
Unless SirNitram was being caricatural and sarcastic, in which case I guess I overreacted .
Let's stop the thread hi-jack.
French officials blame the high death toll in part on the length of the heat wave and the fact that Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning.
Keep in mind that AFAIK a good part of said buildings are fairly old and fitting them with AC is somewhat expensive, considering they'd done fine without it the years before and had no warning about this unusually long and intense heat wave.
. Officials blame the lack of air conditioning in big cities ( note that it's not because they forgot to use it, but because they don't have one ). Of course, since it's the fault of old people for not preparing for an unusual heat wave of which they had little to no warning, not theirs for not being perceptive enough 
.
.