“My real beef, my real anger, is that hugely expensive programmes like test and trace did not have built in, right from the beginning, a capacity for experimental evaluation. They should have been running studies, different methodologies, different ways of tracing. As it is, we don’t know what benefit it’s had. It’s like rolling out vaccines without ever measuring whether they have an effect or not. For Heaven’s sake!”
The trial of the suspects of the Charlie Hebdo killings of 7 January 2015 (and of the subsequent days) has started several weeks ago, involving people accused of helping the main culprits, who died on 9 January. In the long flow of witnesses and victims, a case remains a mystery, the shooting of a random runner in Fontenay-aux-Roses, on the first evening with the same weapon used two days later by the Hyper Casher killer. The runner survived the shooting, despite all odds, but one sees no other motive in the attack than a ghastly real-scale testing of the weapon, as he has no connection with the journal, with the killers or with the accused… The trial also brings a stark reminder that the survivors of Charlie are still living under permanent police protection, having to give up part of their freedom to keep up publishing the journal. As sadly illustrated by the recent exfiltration of Marika Bret from her flat following specific death threats. To quote the late Cabu, dur d’être aimé par des cons…
Xi'an's Og 