We thought he was behind us, but obviously not. The fifth wave of Covid-19 has indeed been on the rise for a few days with 116,000 new cases in twenty-four hours against 80,000 two weeks ago. This Friday, the sacrosanct Scientific Council even met and sounded the alarm: “The epidemic is not over! “. Pointing to the “trivialization” of the latter, the council regrets that the coronavirus has passed “into the background”.
In a context of international conflict, suggesting a Third World War [pour les plus pessimistes], it is “Obvious that the Covid-19 goes into the background”, slice Catherine Grangeard, psychoanalyst, psychosociologist and author. “On the one hand, the risk of death is much more imminent and, on the other hand, we are not really able to manage several anxieties at the same time”, diagnoses the psychoanalyst.
A “habituation” more than a “trivialization”
For Clémence Marois, neurologist and medical resuscitator at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, the term used by the scientific council should be qualified: “I would not speak of “trivialization” but rather of “habituation”, these are two things different. “To trivialize implies that the problem is less serious, to get used to it is rather, in my opinion, to adopt good habits in the face of this virus”, she specifies. And these habits, according to Clémence Marois, must first be assimilated on an individual level: “Everyone, in conscience, must protect the most fragile. It is up to each individual to decide whether or not to wear their mask in the presence of immunocompromised, elderly or unvaccinated people. »
For our psychosociologist, Catherine Grangeard, if “trivializing” means “getting out of fear”, then let’s trivialize! “Since March 2020, we have forgotten everything else. There is only the Covid-19. It was time to get out of the obsession and permanent fear, she explains. To trivialize the Covid-19 is also to put it in its rightful place. A danger yes, but not the only one. A news yes, but not the only one either. »
“We must remain vigilant”
And it is surely so as not to plunge the French back into anguish that Olivier Veran, remained reassuring, while not excluding a new epidemic peak. At the microphone of France Info this Wednesday morning, the Minister of Health affirmed that the peak should not, this time, exceed 120,000 to 150,000 contaminations per day before starting a decrease.
“There are still serious cases of Covid-19 today and in particular in fragile subjects. This is why we must remain vigilant,” says our neurologist Clémence Marois. “So of course we must not trivialize this virus but we must succeed in apprehending it so that it becomes a virus like any other. In the same way as the flu, for example, ”she concludes. So let’s not trivialize, but live. Doctor’s orders.
