For two years, the Covid, described as the “epidemic of the century”, crushed all other considerations, war, terrorism, natural disaster, and social demands. Legitimately considered a disaster given its brevity and social scale, the Covid was to mark a break and lead to a new perspective, the illusion of the “world after”.
To trace this “new world”, it was necessary to consider not only the cause of this epidemic (natural or accidental) but above all the factors which allowed its dazzling expansion and its serious health and social consequences in order to give birth to a more relevant and sustainable in terms of reducing vulnerability.
In its infancy, the media discourse relating to Covid was simple: the dazzling progress made in the knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 seemed to guarantee the definitive eradication of the latter, in the shortest possible time. However, around May 2021, under the influence of yet another strong wave, an uncertain outlook succeeded the optimism of a speech announcing the effectiveness of vaccines. The Covid was now settling in for the long term, we were going to have to live with the virus.
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The remedy, the restrictions to contain the virus, being considered worse than the disease, deaths and long Covids, all health protection measures had to be lifted as long as hospitals were able to “support” the epidemic.
Fear was then succeeded by fatalism. We could not change the course of events, and therefore we had to accept as inevitable significant loss of life and the uncertainty of the health future to preserve our world before. A health heresy in reverse of centuries of struggle against epidemics, but that is not the main thing.
Refusal to consider root causes
Beyond the endless discussions on the models chosen to contain the spread of the virus, the root causes of this crisis have hardly been analyzed, and this for a simple reason: it would have forced us to consider measures that we are unable to take.
– Zoonoses exist, in part, due to the destruction of the natural habitats of wildlife.
– The mortality of this virus has been dramatic in countries like India and Brazil, due to very failing health systems and radical political decisions,
– The poor and the minority (for example the black or Hispanic populations in the United States) die much more from Covid because they have more comorbidities (diabetes, obesity), and they have less access to the doctor or even to the hospital.
– Covid-19 is a pandemic. Obesity and diabetes, risk of death from infection, are also. Fighting against the diabesity epidemic (pathology associating obesity and diabetes) also means dramatically reducing the consequences of future epidemics.
– Pollution is a risk factor for spreading the pandemic and increasing its severity.
– The very rapid and massive circulation of goods and people allows a dazzling progression of pathogens.
– The absence of vaccination in poor countries creates zones of “factories” of more aggressive variants.
The Covid-19 and its consequences have been made possible by excessive urbanization, promiscuity, the destruction of the Amazon forest, inequalities, poverty, massive pollution, our frenzied choice of individual freedoms against the equality of all , the politicization of medical issues, the absence of health structures in many countries and the collapse of ours…
And what about our inability to provide vaccines to poor countries on the pretext that they would not want them, that their infrastructures would not allow their application and that the Covid would not have affected Africa? These are the same pretexts that the rich countries, sated with their certainties, expressed thirty years ago for not considering the HIV epidemic on this continent.
memory oblivion
These are the targets to repair and prepare for the inevitable pandemics to come. Unfortunately at this stage, our only objective has been for everyone to be able to return to work and for this we are ready to sacrifice the “poor”, the “old”, the “fragile” with their comorbidities, and the planet. The counts of the dead and cases of Covid were followed by those of GDP, employment and stock market prices. Considering both, producing and respecting our environment and the other seems inaccessible to the human mind. Failing to build new models, we run towards the abyss.
Fatalism has replaced fear. The latter brings about a dynamic which, although dangerous, leaves open the possibility of a reaction. Inevitability is inaction, forgetfulness of memory, it leaves the way open to extremism on all sides, in the management and explanation of Covid-19. This impression of helplessness leads to passivity – “there would be an inevitable and predictable fate” – and therefore to the absence of prevention.
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We are at this moment, that of major decisions that change a life, a social model, the future of a country, a continent, Europe, and ultimately the world.
