Doctors describe hospital standards overwhelmed with calls. Some see it as the result of media frenzy. But also a classic anxiety in the face of emerging diseases, not necessarily related to their real extent.
“We’re talking about a virus that has symptoms of pneumonia, but even people with colds call us.” For days, the Grenoble University Hospital has been crumbling under the calls of people thinking – wrongly – suffering from the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, says Jean-Paul Stahl, who is professor of infectious and tropical diseases there. On Saturday January 25 and Sunday January 26, the hospital received a hundred calls on this subject alone, “including symptomless people who just received a package from China”. same “unlikely questions” at the Strasbourg University Hospital, says her sister Samira Fafi-Kremer, head of service of the virology laboratory. A concern that she notices even in her entourage, “where people ask me if we can all die”.
Protective masks are out of stock in some pharmacies, customers fear falling ill because of packages sent from China, our section #VraiouFake is challenged on countless rumors … Certainly, the virus is spreading in its country of he origin and beyond, a first European case of transmission between humans has been reported in Germany and the scale of the epidemic already exceeds that of SARS. But only six cases of this coronavirus were identified in France on January 31. All on patients who had recently stayed in China. So those who are alarmed and fear of contracting the epidemic in France are they right or do they give in to an exaggerated panic? And how to explain this reaction?
Even among specialists, the message is not uniform. “Someone who hasn’t traveled has no reason to get this coronavirus”, says Samira Fafi-Kremer. For patients who suffer from a respiratory disorder and have not been to China, she advises above all “Avoid kissing people and washing your hands. Clearly, stop panicking.” “That doesn’t mean you don’t have to be prepared because the potential for dissemination is obvious”, still insists Jean-Paul Stahl. But “it is wrong to think that at the time we speak [le 29 janvier], it is a very serious problem. Just see the numbers ” to put the number of people affected into perspective.
On the other hand, Astrid Vabret, head of the virology service of the CHU de Caen, is annoyed by those who “at the first announcements say, ‘it’s nothing, there are not many dead’, without thinking that it may only be the beginning “. Unlike her colleagues, who think that the public should for the moment be more concerned with epidemics of seasonal flu, because these kill an average of 10,000 people per year, she believes that we cannot put them on the same plan: “It is like comparing cabbage and carrots. The flu is something that we watch every year, there is a treatment, a vaccine …“
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus is an emerging phenomenon. By definition, we don’t know what will happen.at franceinfo
For good or for bad. Without panicking, she deems it necessary “to be informed and to remain vigilant” on the progress of the epidemic, which will depend in particular on the success of the containment measures taken by the China.
One element is reassuring, and everyone agrees: our knowledge of 2019-nCoV is already very important for a virus that emerged in December. “Having a first ‘identity card’ in less than two months is very fast”, explains Frédéric Vagneron, historian specializing in epidemics and postdoctoral fellow at the Alexandre-Koyré Center, who recalls that it took years to do the same with HIV in the 1980s. This is accompanied by a degree of transparency never seen from China.
We can never be sure, but we have information, it’s already a big progress.at franceinfo
But better informing the general public also means communicating on spectacular measures, such as the quarantine of the Chinese city of Wuhan and its 11 million inhabitants. “Admit it is something to worry about”, Points Samira Fafi-Kremer. Because if this decision is relevant, it also highlights the gravity of the situation. The virologist puts herself in the place of the general public in the face of the many questions still unanswered. “A virus that we did not know, which comes from an animal not yet identified, came from a fairly opaque country with a very dense population” leaves plenty of room for speculation.
The coronavirus epidemic also arises in a context where information is abundant, sometimes contradictory, not always verified and where confidence in the word of the authorities falters. “When the Minister of Health has reassuring words, many people say that she is hiding something”, notes Jean-Paul Stahl, not to mention the distrust of the Chinese regime.
In a world where all reassuring words are questioned, there remains only concern.at franceinfo
The many gray areas that remain about this virus revive a fear buried in us, says the psychologist Pierre-Eric Sutter. Until HIV in the 1980s, our western societies believed that they were rid of the great epidemics of infectious diseases, recalls the historian Frédéric Vagneron. Their return is therefore all the more a shock.
When, despite scientific progress, we suddenly find ourselves in the uncertainty of having no remedy, the repressed anxiety of death returns instantly.at franceinfo
“Do we know how not to catch it?”, “Am I going to pass there?” : the unanswered questions posed by such an epidemic are numerous, explains this anxiety specialist, who is particularly interested in the fears of collapsologists within the observatory he directs, Obveco. To his eyes, “the opacity of the manifestation of the virus can be particularly worrisome “ and if the symptoms resemble those of other diseases, “we wonder how to see it coming”.
All of these sources of concern can cause “a strong emotional overload, which triggers the mechanics of stress” and leads to “react before thinking. ” For Pierre-Eric Sutter, someone who panics about the coronavirus is a bit like “a pedestrian who misses being crushed, but takes a step back before he has even seen the danger, because he has perceived the risk before having understood it”.
In this context of uncertainty, the origin of this new epidemic also revives an old fear of diseases from China, and from “the East” in general, explain historians. “In the second half of the 20th century, the major epidemics came mainly from China” – from “Asian flu” in 1958 to Sras in 2003 – recalls Patrice Bourdelais, director of studies at EHESS, demographer and historian specializing in epidemics. The country has a large population, stretches over a wide range of climatic zones, and was still recently plagued by malnutrition, which encouraged the consumption of game of all kinds (the new coronavirus is “probably” of animal origin but “its original species has not yet been identified with certainty”, according to the Institut Pasteur). “It settles in memories”, explains Patrice Bourdelais, creating the idea that a virus from China “will generally be quite serious”.
There are also a number of fantasies about “the Orient” in general, which go back a long way. Historian Frédéric Vagneron explains that the first international health surveillance systems, established in the 19th century, were already aimed at protecting western countries from the risk of disease “Exotic” coming from the east – China, but also pilgrims from Mecca, for example – by means, in particular, of quarantines. “European states are starting to worry about the health of their populations, and we then think that diseases will come from the colonies, the tropics …” He summarizes.
In their most dangerous form, these prejudices about the countries of origin of the epidemics lead to racist reflections and behaviors, such as those targeting people perceived as of Asian origin in France denounced in recent days. In Strasbourg, Samira Fafi-Kremer heard of a call from a mother worried about her child “just because he sat next to a person she thought was Chinese”. Same story in Grenoble, where people without any symptoms called the CHU “after having just passed someone on the tram looking Asian”, says Jean-Paul Stahl. “The search for the culprit is a great classic” in such a situation, confirms psychologist Pierre-Eric Sutter. And panics in the face of epidemics have always been accompanied by the designation of scapegoats, recalls historian Patrice Bourdelais: “During the medieval flu, it was the Jewish populations who were the targets of pogroms.”
On the other hand, anxiety about the coronavirus is not necessarily an evil in itself, remind doctors. “Thee risk 0 does not exist “, says Astrid Vabret, who advises to remain vigilant while waiting to know how the epidemic will evolve. Pending a possible vaccine against 2019-nCoV, his colleagues Jean-Paul Stahl and Samira Fafi-Kremer hope that the coronavirus will help remind people that there are also other viruses dangerous, like seasonal flu and measles.
It would be good if this fear pushed people to get vaccinated when the vaccines already exist.at franceinfo
The psychologist Pierre-Eric Sutter invites him to “understand that it is legitimate to be afraid, but that panic is exaggerated, and that emotional overheating must be reduced by a rational response”. He recommends “give oneself the means to act”, for example by learning how to identify symptoms from a reliable source and knowing which number to call if suspected. And do not advise to cut information, even if it is disturbing, but to “deal with events”.
This does not prevent all of these experts from pointing out the role of the media in heightening concern about the ongoing epidemic. “The permanent count of infected people”, which is used by many media, including Franceinfo, “feels like a countdown”Says Samira Fafi-Kremer, to the point of giving the impression that “it will soon be our turn”. This dynamic is fueled by the speed at which information circulates today, from which it is difficult to get out as well for the media as for the readers. “It is difficult to inform without getting sensational, but without going unnoticed either. You are well placed to know that there is an appetite for the dramatic side of information“, Deplores Astrid Vabret, the virologist at the Caen CHU. “But the ‘virological thriller’ side feeds fantasies.”
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