I’ve heard the tragic reports of up to 10,000 deaths in France due to the recent hot weather. That’s not to say there aren’t deaths elsewhere, but I’m not aware of such high numbers in other countries.
Why are so many people dying in France in particular? There are several possible reasons, some of which might be: a lack of air conditioning, or other ways of staying cool. or perhaps the medical infrastructure not exist to care for the heat stressed? Or perhaps people are unaware of overheating and do not take precautions.
But what is the real answer?
Since I live in a very hot climate, this is a real puzzle for me. Please help me understand.
The French are accustomed to it being hot for about four days and then cooling off. They don’t generally have air conditioning, so when the latest heat wave struck and stayed around for a month they were in trouble, especially the older people.
This is the time when the French go on very long vacations, lasting about a month. The older people stay home during this time and had nobody to check on them. The government is in trouble since there also were very few doctors or nurses in town. They also had gone on vacation. Many of the hospitals were closed.
I heard on NPR today that the French use a different system to count the number of heat-related deaths than other European countries do. The French Ministry of Health counts “excess deaths” - the number who actually died minus the number who usually die during the same period. The count of 10,000 is actually the number of excess deaths. In other countries, the number of heat-related deaths is counted as the number of people whose deaths are known to have been caused by the heat. So, for example, a person who died at home during the heat wave was more likely to have been counted as a heat-related death in France than in, say Germany.
