Features

PARIS — "Nothing will ever be the same again" has been the constant refrain of the coronavirus era.

But for the fashion world that may well be true.

Tectonic plates have been shifting inside the industry during the lockdown, with a wave of designers standing up to say that the mad whirr of the fashion circus has to slow.

While many have questioned its frenetic rhythm and wasteful over-production for years, few big-name insiders dared openly to question the hamster wheel of spring/summer, autumn/winter, cruise and pre-fall shows, as well as the now mandatory capsule collections.

The first cracks in the facade began to appear last month, when Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello said he was pulling out of Paris fashion week this year.

Henceforth "the brand will lead its own rhythm... and take control of its pace and reshape its schedule," he declared.

'Clothes need longer life'

This week Gucci's Alessandro Michele joined the revolt by saying he was slashing his shows from five to two a year, and questioning the very idea of seasonal collections which have underpinned fashion since World War II.

"Clothes should have a longer life," he said in a virtual press conference from Milan, insisting that his future collections would be "seasonless".

Michele is no pouting rebel, but fashion's commercially savvy darling who has turned Gucci into a cash cow for the French luxury conglomerate Kering with his ironic kitschy style that has echoes of Wes Anderson and John Waters films.

And it is not the just the young guns who have had enough. 

The doyen of designers, Giorgio Armani — still working at age 85 — said it was time to "cut out the superfluous" and rein in fashion's gruelling schedule.

"The times that we are living in are turbulent, but they give us a unique chance to see what is not working... to find a more human dimension to it," he said.

More significant still has been an open letter initiated by the Belgian master Dries Van Noten and rising French designer Marine Serre calling for a rethinking of how luxury fashion works.

Several hundred industry players have since signed it including brands, creators and department stores like Chloe, Thom Browne, Y/Project, Lemaire, Alexandre Mattiussi, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

They call for "fundamental change that will simplify businesses, making them more environmentally and socially sustainable" and are now in talks with the organisers of the four big fashion weeks in Paris, Milan, New York and London.

Over-production

Van Noten has also called for an end to the frenzy of discounting and Black Friday-type sales and pleaded for clothes to stay longer in the shops.

He wants winter clothes to hit the shops in winter and summer ones in summer, rather than months before as they do now. 

"It's not normal to buy winter clothes in May," Van Noten said. Nor was it normal for a collection to be "discounted at 50 per cent a month after it hits the floor."

He said current retail culture was creating a "vicious circle" of waste and over-production. "After the sales, shops need something new and we are pushed to make more and more collections," he told the French daily Le Monde.

"I may be naive, but I think that maybe what happened with gastronomy a few years ago could happen in fashion. We saw the emergence of a wave of restaurants with shorter, seasonal menus that were less ostentatious," Van Noten said.

Serre — who has made a name for herself for up-cycling and reusing material — said fashion should see the coronavirus crisis "as a chance take responsibility" environmentally. 

"The advantage of being independent is that you are not motivated by money. What matters is the quality of our work," she said. "That makes change possible."

Gucci and Saint Laurent are part of Kering, one of two French giants that dominate luxury fashion. But contacted by AFP, it declined to comment on whether it supported the overhaul of the calendar its creators are championing.

LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, which owns Louis Vuitton, Dior and a plethora of other labels, has also remained silent.

By Fiachra Gibbons

PARIS — This much we knew: some 66 million years ago an asteroid roughly twice the diameter of Paris crashed into Earth, wiping out all land-dwelling dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on the planet. 

What remained a mystery was whether it was a direct hit or more of a glancing blow, and which would be more destructive.

As it turns out, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, the giant space rock struck at the "deadliest possible" angle — 60 degrees.

The cataclysmic impact kicked up enough debris and gases into the upper atmosphere to radically change the climate, dooming T-Rex and everything it ever hunted to extinction. 

Analysing the structure of the 200-kilometre-wide crater in southern Mexico where the asteroid hit, scientists ran a series of simulations.

Lead author Gareth Collins of Imperial College London and colleagues at the University of Freiburg and the University of Texas at Austin looked at four possible impact angles — 90, 60, 45 and 30 degrees — and two impact speeds, 12 and 20 kilometres per second.

The best fit with the data from the crater was a 60 degree strike.

"Sixty degrees is a more lethal impact angle because it ejects a larger amount of material fast enough to engulf the planet," Collins told AFP.

"The Chicxulub impact triggered a mass extinction because it ejected huge quantities of dust and gas out of the crater fast enough to disperse around the globe." 

Had the asteroid hit head on or at a more oblique angle, not as much debris would have been thrown up into the atmosphere, he added. 

Large amounts of sulphur in the form of tiny particles that remained suspended in the air blocked the Sun, cooling the climate by several degrees Celsius. 

Rocks 'rebound'

Smoke, ash and debris engulfed the atmosphere, eventually destroying most plants and wiping out 75 per cent of species on Earth.

Chicxulub is also thought to have triggered an earthquake whose seismic waves reached Tanis — the fossil site 3,000km away in North Dakota where definitive evidence of the asteroid's devastating impact was uncovered — in just 13 minutes.

The seismic shock triggered a torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.

Thus far, scientists have only been able to study the early stages of the impact. 

The researchers combed through geological data gathered during a recent dig to better understand how the cataclysm unfolded. 

They soon realised that the asteroid did not, as long assumed, approach Earth from the southeast. 

"Our work overturns this hypothesis," Collins explained. "The crater's central uplift is leaning slightly to the southwest, and numerical simulations of the impact reproduce this." 

The findings could lead to a greater understanding about how craters are formed in general. 

The 3-D simulations, for example, suggest that rocks "rebound" to fill in some of the impact layer during the final stage of crater formation, a process that takes only minutes, the researchers conjectured. 

Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the asteroid triggered a mass extinction event and why some species survived while others didn't. 

"The Chicxulub impact was a very bad day for the dinosaurs," Collins said, adding that the new research showed it was "even worse" than had been previously thought.

"It makes it even more remarkable that life survived and recovered as rapidly as it did." 

By Phineas Rueckert

LOS ANGELES — Decades before glossy Netflix and Amazon shows began luring Hollywood A-listers to the small screen, cable network HBO helped invent premium television.

Now the home of "The Sopranos," "The Wire" and "Game of Thrones" is scrambling to catch up with its newfound online rivals, launching its own multi-billion-dollar streaming platform — HBO Max — this Wednesday.

"Within the crowded constellation of entertainment brands, HBO is a crown jewel," said University of Southern California communications professor Christopher Smith.

"They're using the HBO brand bludgeon to break their way through in the streaming wars."

The platform enters a competitive marketplace. Besides Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, the likes of Disney+, Apple TV+ and Quibi have recently joined the fray.

But having licensed its films and series to other streamers for years, parent company WarnerMedia felt it could no longer skirt the direct-to-consumer revolution seizing Hollywood.

HBO Max's launch follows telecoms giant AT&T's $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, and brings that sprawling media empire's titles under one roof.

Beloved Warner Bros shows like "Friends," and films from "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" to the "Batman" movies, will sit alongside prestige HBO programmes on the service.

Indeed, HBO Max was supposed to launch with a long-anticipated "Friends" reunion, until the coronavirus ended those plans.

With the pandemic delaying new filming across Hollywood, HBO Max executives are counting on comforting classics to lure subscribers in anxious times.

"We're really tapping into the nostalgia and the warm feeling that's associated with these iconic characters that people love, and stories that they've fallen in love with year and year again," said marketing head Katie Soo.

"The reality is, this is a challenging time," she told a recent Variety webinar. "There's no playbook for it."

'Crown jewel'

But despite its enviable back-catalogue, media analysts have voiced concerns over the new platform's strategy.

Costing $15 a month, HBO Max is the most expensive option, at a time when US unemployment is soaring.

And the platform's "more is more" smorgasbord approach is at odds with the classic HBO model of focusing on fewer, high-quality productions that "really move the needle," said Smith. 

"That does threaten to dilute what made HBO so special," he added.

One campaign for HBO Max used a tagline reading: "Where Bada... Meets Bing... Meets Bang."

It was accompanied by images of fictional mafia boss Tony Soprano, Chandler Bing of "Friends," and "The Big Bang Theory" character Sheldon Cooper.

The ad was slammed by analysts for confusing consumers about what HBO Max actually stands for.

Potentially adding to the confusion, HBO Max will run alongside pay-TV service HBO Go, and existing standalone app HBO Now.

"Bad slogan, bad promotion," said Smith. "But the actual substance of what they were marketing is phenomenal."

'Over-watching Netflix'

While HBO Max has no marquee original launch titles, it has high-profile series and films in the pipeline.

In the works are three new shows from "Lost" creator JJ Abrams, a "Gossip Girl" revival, and Ridley Scott's sci-fi "Raised by Wolves."

On the movie side, new production label "Warner Max" will provide eight to 10 mid-budget movies per year.

And comic book fans around the world collectively swooned last week with the announcement of a much-hyped new edit of 2017 ensemble movie "Justice League."

Indeed, a recent Hollywood Reporter poll found HBO Max's biggest lure is its DC "universe" of titles featuring beloved characters such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

The dearth of new productions aside, analysts say it could be an ideal moment to unleash beloved content on a cooped-up public.

"With people spending more time at home, and more time streaming, they kind of backed into a decent time," said Leichtman Research Group president Bruce Leichtman.

If the platform only converts HBO's existing 35 million domestic subscribers, it will already have achieved its initial goal of providing a "glue" for customers of AT&T's core product — wireless phones — he added.

And others who have "been at home over-watching Netflix, over-watching Disney+" may also be "anxious to try something new," said Wedbush tech analyst Brad Gastwirth.

He added: "Content right now is king."

By Andrew Marszal

PARIS — A study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients has shown no benefit in treating them with anti-viral drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine and even increased the likelihood of them dying in hospital.

Hydroxychloroquine is normally used to treat arthritis but pronouncement from public figures including US President Donald Trump — who announced this week he is taking the drug — has prompted governments to bulk buy the medicine.

Chloroquine is an anti-malarial. Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia. 

And neither drug benefitted patients hospitalised with COVID-19, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet. 

Looking at the records of 96,000 patients across hundreds of hospitals, they found that administering the drugs actually increased the risk of dying. 

They compared outcomes from four groups: those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone, with chloroquine alone, and then two groups given the respective drugs in combination with antibiotics. 

There was also a control group of patients not given these treatments. 

At the end of the study period around nine per cent of those in the control group had died. 

Of those treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine alone, 18 per cent and 16.4 per cent respectively had died. 

And those given each drug in combination with antibiotics were even more likely to die: 22.8 per cent with chloroquine and 23.8 per cent with hydroxychloroquine. 

The authors estimated that the drugs put patients at up to 45 per cent higher risk of dying from COVID-19 compared with underlying health issues. 

"Treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with COVID-19," said Mandeep Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Centre for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston. 

"Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death."

'Landmark for treatment'

Despite Trump's enthusiasm for using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment, his own government's Food and Drug Administration warns against it.

Brazil's health minister on Wednesday recommended using chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat even mild COVID-19 cases. 

Britain has ordered £35 million ($42 million) worth of hydroxychloroquine, despite numerous studies showing it is ineffective in treating COVID-19 and may even be more dangerous than doing nothing. 

"Several countries have advocated use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, either alone or in combination, as potential treatments for COVID-19," said Frank Ruschitzka, director of the Heart Centre at University Hospital Zurich and co-author of the study.

"We now know from our study that the chance that these medications improve outcomes in COVID-19 is quite low."

Stephen Griffin, associate professor at the University of Leeds' School of Medicine said the Lancet research was "potentially a landmark study for COVID-19 therapy".

"The indications are that these drugs certainly ought not to be used outside of a trial setting where patients can be monitored for complications," said Griffin, who was not involved in the study.

"It is clear that high profile endorsements of taking these drugs without clinical oversight is both misguided and irresponsible."

By Patrick Galey

PARIS — Uggie the adorable terrier from the Oscar-winning film "The Artist" was posthumously awarded the Palm Dog of Palm Dogs Friday for the best canine performance ever at the Cannes film festival.

With the film world in mourning after Cannes was cancelled because of the coronavirus, the ceremony was conducted virtually, with Dash — Uggie's old friend and understudy, who also appeared in the 2011 silent comedy — accepting the diamante-encrusted collar on his behalf.

Uggie passed away five years ago aged 13 but not before charming the world after making his first big splash at Cannes.

The Palm Dog is the doggie version of the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, and almost as sought after, with Quentin Tarantino, Noah Baumbach and Jim Jarsmusch among a galaxy of top-dog directors who have emerged from the pack with the highly-prized collar between their teeth.

Cannes would have reached its climax this weekend had the coronavirus not struck, completely overturning the movie calendar and now even calling the Oscars into question.

Cans of tinned rat

Palm Dog founder Toby Rose told AFP that he decided to honour Uggie not just for being the greatest Hollywood hound in the Palm Dog's two-decade history, but for proudly wearing the collar on his worldwide publicity tour for the film.

"Every single year a journalist will pose the question, 'Is there going to be a year with [films with] no dogs?" We been doing this 19, coming on 20 years and dogs and directors never fail to come up with the goods," he added.

Indeed Tarantino admitted that he had his eye on the collar last year for "my wonderful actress Brandy", a pit bull who liked to chomp cans of tinned rat and who savaged the baddies in the gory final scene of "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood".

"I'm not going to give this to her — it'll go on my mantelpiece," he proudly told AFP after the dog who very nearly upstaged Brad Pitt won the award.

Uggie's trainer Omar Von Muller, who also worked on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", said winning the Palm Dog was the launchpad for "The Artist" and its fairytale Oscar success.

"At the time we really didn't know how the movie would do and that's when the whole thing started going everywhere," he told AFP from his home north of Los Angeles, which is festooned with portraits of Uggie.

'He loved the attention'

"Uggie was a very, very special friend. He was a family member... He loved to work and the attention he got on set. He will be in our hearts forever," Von Muller said.

"Things like the Palm Dog are very important for us because it recognises the work" dog trainers do, he said.

Van Muller said they were no secrets to training dogs other than having heart and passion and making sure the dogs "enjoy what they're doing without ever being pressured... It starts very slowly, with a lot of patience and a lot love for the dogs."

Rose said the Palm Dog has since expanded its scope with its "Dogmanitarian" prize, honouring among others the British social realist master Ken Loach, who has made three-legged dogs a fixture in his films.

"It represents the underdog," for which Loach has fought throughout his long career, Rose said. 

"Ken was so fabulously embracing of the idea and even told us about the castings," he told AFP.

Can you imagine, Rose joked, "having to say to a three-legged dog, 'Sorry you ain't got the role.'"

By Fiachra Gibbons

LOS ANGELES — Red-carpet premieres are the pinnacle of any new Hollywood blockbuster's publicity blitz.

Their A-list entourages, elbow-to-elbow fans and showbiz photographers vying for the perfect snaps of glamorous stars, are also a nightmare for social distancing.

But with California coronavirus restrictions easing, and major movies like "Tenet" eyeing July release dates, Tinseltown's marketing gurus are scrambling for ways to safely roll out those carpets once again.

"Prior to what we're going through, it was about getting a lot of attention and getting big crowds to come together and sharing with as many people as possible to help spread the excitement," said Elizabeth Tramontozzi, of leading Hollywood event planners 15|40 Productions.

"It's going to be massively different moving forward," she told AFP.

The company, which built an epic "Game of Thrones" set in New York for last year's series finale and has worked on extravagant premieres for Disney movies on Hollywood Boulevard, has spent the lockdown drawing up new designs.

These include plexiglass barriers between journalists, screened-off "pods" for interviews via video link, and drop-off zones where pre-selected fans appear on LED screens to engage with stars.

Entourages will be asked to enter socially-distanced theatres via "bypass lanes" that free up the red carpet for the stars alone.

Temperature checks for all guests are being considered, while fans would be physically barred from attending.

"We need to enclose ourselves first so that there is no gathering on sidewalks and people watching," said 15|40 president Craig Waldman. 

With everyone left surrounding the carpet spaced out, "the carpet's just going to be a little wider and the carpet's going to be a little bit longer," he added.

'Hope it happens'

Even so, publicists do not expect lavish Los Angeles after-premiere parties — and their crowded open bars and buffets — to return for several months, or possibly until a vaccine emerges.

Pop-up immersive experiences, a growing part of the Hollywood hype machine, may also need a rethink, with the focus now solely on building awareness rather than drawing crowds.

More immediately, with streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon continuing to launch major titles during lockdown, "virtual" press junkets in which interviews are conducted entirely online are growing in popularity.

15|40 has created a mobile studio in a trailer which can be carted between movie stars' homes, fitted out with the branding of whichever film or television show is being launched.

The firm has even drawn up plans for "drive-in" premieres, where celebrities park up in the front row or sit on branded picnic blankets to interact with fans via camera link.

Still, almost all of this year's biggest blockbusters have been delayed until traditional movie theatres reopen, and publicists are itching to get back to famous venues such as Hollywood Boulevard's TCL Chinese Theatre for their launch events.

"Let's be honest, people are tired of being at home," said Waldman.

While glitzy premieres might jar at a time when people are dying and unemployment is soaring, major entertainment and sport events can provide a welcome distraction for stir-crazy fans, he added.

"People right now are kind of starving for something to make their life feel normal."

The big test will be Warner Bros.' "Tenet," the latest mega-budget thriller from director Christopher Nolan ("Inception," "The Dark Knight,") who has reportedly pushed hard for it to be the first Hollywood blockbuster back in theaters.

Tellingly, its July 17 US release date has yet to shift.

"I really hope it happens — we know there's a lot of eyes on it, and we're excited by it," said Waldman, who is working on the premiere.

"We spent a lot of time to create the plans we've created, to make an environment that's safe for the studio, for the press, and for the talent... We all want to go back to work as well."

By Andrew Marszal

The main camera in Samsung’s newest high-end smartphone, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, and that was introduced last March, has a resolution of 108 megapixels (MP). If you have been following the general trend towards constantly more MP, and if you compare this incredible number with that of Nikon’s most expensive professional DSLR camera, the new D6 company flagship that will set you back about $6,500 for the body only, and that features a “humble” 21 MP, you may start wondering what exactly are megapixels about. In a broader manner, the theme of your reflection might be more like “where is technology taking photography?”

Of course, at about $1,200 for the basic model and $1,500 for the one turbo-charged with a lot of memory, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is not a cheap electronic device either. You can certainly make calls and take decent photos at a lower cost!

On another, parallel front, the makers of big, professional cameras, essentially Nikon, Sony and Canon, now all propose mirrorless models, alongside their more traditional DSLR line. In short, mirrorless image technology means smaller and lighter cameras, simpler mechanism, and no shutter vibration and noise at all, since – as the name implies — there’s no mirror to move up and down in the first place to let the light in to the sensor, while still allowing you to take great pro-grade shots.

The critical question here is whether all this technology makes better pictures in the end. In a nutshell the answer is a definite yes, even if purists and hard-core artists would argue that a good camera alone will never make a real good photograph. You need “eyes” behind it, to see, to imagine the picture in advance in your mind, to make the composition, to use the available light in the best possible way, to find that exact split second and then to take the shot that would make all the difference.

The fact remains that the constant and impressive improvements in cameras technology, whether a higher MP count, or mirrorless models, can tremendously help even if they cannot exactly make you an artist if you are not one already. One has also to admit that post-editing software can greatly contribute to making superb pictures, even if only from the technical viewpoint of light adjustment, colour balance, cropping, exposure, filtering, etc, not to mention touch-up.

A very high MP count like the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s generates particularly large pictures. Once your photo is so large, you can crop it at will, to reach the most pleasing composition and size, even if you couldn’t at shooting time. You can take out half of the unwanted parts and more if you wish, re-adjust the frame, you will still have a high-resolution picture in the end. So having 108 MP to start with doesn’t hurt after all.

Improvement in lenses manufacturing and in ultrafast and accurate autofocus technology in the last few years has tremendously changed the game as well. Again, it is here to help you get closer to great shots, and in a real easy way, from the purely technical or the artistic point of view.

Technology is also helping in an indirect manner. Simply because it has given us the Internet and the convenient online learning that goes with it, the true art of photography can be yours by attending the countless classes available this way, regardless of what camera hardware you may be using. Prices are unbelievably low at present, with some excellent courses costing $200 to $400 only. Others are completely free, just because they are sponsored.

Compared to the prices of cameras, whether those in a smartphone or the dedicated devices, learning the fine art of photography online is relatively inexpensive and can bring priceless added value to your pictures. Of course, some time and some effort are necessary here! Yes, real art takes work, and it still matters in the end.

PARIS — Parts of the Antarctic Peninsula will change colour as "green snow" caused by blooming algae is expected to spread with increases in global temperatures, research showed Wednesday. 

Although often considered devoid of plant life, Antarctica is home to several types of algae, which grow on slushy snow and suck carbon dioxide from the air. 

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey combined satellite imagery with on-the-ground observations to detect the current extent of green algae in the world's most barren continent. 

They identified more than 1,600 separate green algae blooms on snow across the peninsula, with a combined surface area of 1.9 square kilometres. 

"Even though the numbers are relatively small on a global scale, in Antarctica where you have such a small amount of plant life, that amount of biomass is highly significant," Matt Davey from Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences, told AFP.

"A lot of people think Antarctica is just snow and penguins. In fact when you look around the fringe there is a lot of plant life."

The team calculated that algae on the peninsula currently absorb levels of CO2 equivalent to 875,000 average car journeys.

They also found that the majority of algae blooms were within five kilometres of a penguin colony, as the birds' excrement is an excellent fertiliser.

'More carbon absorbed'

The polar regions are warming far faster than other parts of the planet and the team predicted that low-lying coastal areas of Antarctica would soon be free from algae as they experience snow-free summers.

But that loss will probably be offset by a preponderance of large algae blooms as temperatures rise and snow at higher altitudes softens.

"As Antarctica continues to warm on small low-lying islands, at some point you will stop getting snow coverings on those in the summer," said Andrew Gray, lead author and researcher at the University of Cambridge and NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility, Edinburgh.

"Conversely, in the north of the peninsula we saw some really large blooms and we hypothesise that we are likely to see more of these larger blooms."

Gray told AFP that the green snow blooms on higher ground would "more than offset" the effect of sea-level algae losses.

While more algae means more CO2 is absorbed, the plants could have a small but adverse impact on local albedo — how much of the Sun's heat is reflected back from Earth's surface.

Whereas white snow reflects 80 per cent of radiation that hits it, for green snow that figure is closer to 45 per cent. 

The team however said the reduced albedo is unlikely to impact Antarctica's climate on any meaningful scale.

"There will be more carbon locked up in future just because you need snow to be in a slushier state for algae to bloom," said Evans.

"We expect there to be more suitable habitat and overall more carbon sequestration."

By Patrick Galey

PARIS — Two months ago Guy Savoy was at the very top of the gastronomic tree. His Paris flagship restaurant had yet again been hailed as the best in the world by La Liste, with tables booked months in advance.

Then the coronavirus came, closing restaurants across the planet. 

Now the three-star Michelin chef is making soup that you can heat up at home in your microwave. 

Not any old soup, of course, but Savoy's legendary artichoke soup with truffles, which comes delivered with a brioche speckled with mushrooms and truffles to dip into it.

"It breaks my heart to see a place that is usually so animated at lunchtime empty," Savoy told AFP, as he surveyed his elegant dining room at la Monnaie de Paris overlooking the River Seine and the Louvre museum.

Its kitchens lie mostly empty, with their fridge doors open, with only the patisserie team hard at work preparing brioches and mousse au chocolat and rice pudding for takeaway.

'We need comfort'

"These old-fashioned recipes bring us the comfort we need in these difficult times," Savoy said. 

Like a host of top French chefs including his great friend and rival Alain Ducasse, Savoy has started doing home deliveries because his well-heeled clients can no longer come to him.

"Looked at from an economic point of view, what we are doing does not hold up," Savoy said, but it was important to keep in contact with his public.

He has come up with a limited takeaway menu of dishes specifically chosen so their taste would not be too adversely affected when they are reheated at a low temperature, like sole or quail confit.

The famous artichoke soup comes in a glass jar to be gently reheated on a stove or at 600W in a microwave, with the truffle shavings wrapped separately to be added afterwards. 

Every dish comes with a little card explaining how best to heat and serve it, said chef Gilles Chesneau, with most of the meals prepared at the one-star Le Chiberta restaurant near the Champs Elysees.

Not running a deli

"We also advise people to leave the starters and the desserts to sit out for five minutes, which will help to bring out the flavours," he added.

But this is not what Savoy's dreams are made of and he is chomping at the bit to get back. 

"I am not a traiteur [someone who runs a deli]," sighed the great chef, but it was helping get some of his staff back to work.

Like many top chefs, the lockdown has been an emotional as well as financial hit for Savoy.

The brutal manner in which it was imposed on a Saturday night in mid-March made it even tougher for him.

"I had to announce it to the guests, the words catching in my throat," he recalled.

'I was knocked out'

"I was knocked out. I have been working for 51 years and it is the first time I came up in front of an obstacle that I couldn't get over with work and energy. It's the feeling of being powerless," he said.

But on the bright side, Savoy said it wasn't like we have been through a war or an earthquake. 

"The building is intact and my teams still have their know-how. We can restart quickly."

When that will be is another question, however.

Many believe restaurants will not be able to open in France until at least July, and then with tight social distancing restrictions, which should be less of a problem for top end addresses like Savoy's.

"They closed us in four hours. I not saying that we will be able to reopen as quick, but in 36 to 48 hours I could get the operation going again," he said. 

Unlike some younger chefs, Savoy said he doesn't "believe in this talk of the world before and after [the coronavirus].

"This crisis is just a moment during which we will have to take a lot of precautions."

Which does not mean he is not worried about when and if foreign tourists will return to Paris, the world's most visited city.

They make up around 40 per cent of his diners, most of them Americans and Koreans. 

"Paris needs the whole planet to work. If there are no tourists, half of the restaurants will disappear," Savoy warned.

BEIJING — A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China's prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say. 

Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.

"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500," said Xie.

"That means this potential drug has [a] therapeutic effect."

The drug uses neutralising antibodies — produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells — which Xie's team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients. 

A study on the team's research, published Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential "cure" for the disease and shortens recovery time.

Xie said his team had been working "day and night" searching for the antibody.

"Our expertise is single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised that the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody we were thrilled."

He said he hopes that the drug will be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.8 million people around the world and killed more than 315,000.

"Planning for the clinical trial is underway," said Xie, adding it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer human guinea pigs for testing.

"The hope is these neutralising antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic," he said.

China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.

But the World Health Organisation has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma — a blood fluid — from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the body's defences to attack it.

More than 700 patients have received plasma therapy in China, a process which authorities said showed "very good therapeutic effects".

"However, it [plasma] is limited in supply," Xie said, noting that the 14 neutralising antibodies used in their drug could be put into mass production quickly.

Prevention and cure

Using antibodies in drug treatments is not a new approach, and it has been successful in treating several other viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

Xie said his researchers had "an early start" since the outbreak started in China before spreading to other countries.

Ebola drug Remdesivir was considered a hopeful early treatment for COVID-19 — clinical trials in the US showed it shortened the recovery time in some patients by a third — but the difference in mortality rate was not significant.

The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.

The study showed that if the neutralising antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection and no virus was detected.

This may offer temporary protection for medical workers for a few weeks, which Xie said they are hoping to "extend to a few months".

More than 100 vaccines for COVID-19 are in the works globally, but as the process of vaccine development is more demanding, Xie is hoping that the new drug could be a faster and more efficient way to stop the global march of the coronavirus.

"We would be able to stop the pandemic with an effective drug, even without a vaccine," he said.

By Qian Ye and Matthew Knight