Coronavirus test
Coronavirus testiStock

To understand what is happening in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic, Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant and Jerry Gordon reached out to long term American ex-pat in Paris, writer, translator, journalist and author, Nidra Poller.

Poller and Gordon have known each other for over 17 years since they first they met in Boston when Poller was involved in the Mohammed al Dura affair investigations and reporting on jihadist murders of fellow Jews in France.

We last interviewed Poller about the disruptive Gilet Jaunes “Yellow Vests” protests of workers in France with demonstrable anti-Semitic overtones. To our surprise, we found out that Poller had suffered symptoms of COVID-19 – dry cough, lack of taste, fever, fatigue - which took 10 days for her to gradually recover from. This prompted her to begin a daily journal of what it was like under total isolation in Paris.

The interview took place just before Passover. Poller is skeptical about the figures, as they may not be reflective of testing, or cases like her own, with symptoms of COVID-19 and recovery without need for hospitalization at any stage.

Poller told us that Paris was France's virus hotspot, and that confinement was having a demonstrable effect in that the death toll was decreasing. The French, according to her, were doing an effective job of shutting things down as their hospitals had not been overwhelmed. Unlike in the US, polls in France, she noted, evidenced a 98% approval rate for the policy of confinement which she noted was very strict. Each person must carry with him at all times a document on which appears his name, address, date, and place of birth, and the date and time of each sortie. People are allowed out for only one hour each day to purchase necessities and for a bit of exercise and fresh air, and must remain within one kilometer of their designated residence.

Poller noted that the French Health Minister and his wife are Jewish and have been attacked for not relenting to calls for permitting the use of the controversial immune suppressive and anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, developed during World War II. She noted that the limited "anecdotal" trials by a respected French medical researcher at the University of Marseilles have triggered the controversy in France – paralleling calls for its use in the US by the President and others.

Poller argues that what is required are controlled clinical trials to establish the drug's efficacy and ensure that it does not cause significant adverse side effects. The interim and ultimate solutions may lie with development of credible antibody therapies and vaccines, several of which are under development in the US and in Israel.