Aller bon train: A French expression you may hear today
Covid booster vaccines are likely to be made available to most people in France, a senior doctor who leads a group advising the government on the virus said today. It comes as French media report that Israel’s third dose campaign continues to ‘aller bon train’ - but what does vaccination have to do with trains?
Learn French words and expressions you may hear in the news today
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Translated literally aller bon train doesn’t make much sense in English; it means ‘to go good train’.
Professor Jean-Françios Delfraissy, president of France’s Covid advisory body le Conseil scientifique, told France 2 this morning (August 25) it was likely that a “large portion of fully vaccinated people” in France would ultimately become eligible for booster doses.
Currently, people considered especially vulnerable to the virus are set to become eligible in September.
Related stories: Details of who is eligible for France's Covid-19 booster plan revealed
Plans to expand the French campaign may be influenced by promising results in Israel where booster doses have been given to older people since the end of July.
Less than four weeks later, a third of people over 60 have been vaccinated and Israeli studies have found that booster doses have significantly reduced infection and serious illness among this age group.
Signs indicate the Israeli campaign will continue to aller bon train – to move quickly – as booster doses are now being made available to people over 30.
The expression aller bon train is a shortened way of saying aller par un bon train – to take a good train.
Similar to Israel’s vaccine campaign, it means to go fast, at a regular and rapid pace, like a train speeding down the railway tracks.
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