10. « DEATH HAS NOT VELVET »
Wednesday, March 25. 2020.
While tidying up newspapers, I came across an edition of "Le Monde" dated Thursday, February 13. It was the day of Claire Bretécher's death and in an insert of the "one" we see the pretty frizz of the "Sociologist of comics". The centre reads, "Coronavirus: a very serious threat to the planet according to the WHO." The newspaper devoted a double page and three columns to him. Inside, an almost moving map: while the epidemic is raging in China (44,670 cases, about the number of cases tested with PCR in Spain today), Europe seems wonderfully spared. 3 cases in Italy (69176 today), 13 in the United States (55,225), 16 in Germany (33,593), Iran is not even mentioned ( 24,811), 11 in France (22637).
And now not only has the virus swept through us, but the more days pass, the more the wave swells, gets bigger, becomes threatening. "Stop"! would we like to scream. Too late! The infernal mechanism of contagion is triggered and nothing can stop it. So we confined themselves. Too late! How many people are actually infected? We don't know anything about it, since screening is not systematic - if you're interested, you can buy me PCR test, it will cost you 1500 euros, the trip may be worth it. So, dear Ladies, you may be confined with a healthy carrier, maybe you are that healthy carrier, headache, fatigue and fever - top there comrade, you have it! And now we are shown appalling images of hospital corridors in Madrid cluttered with patients coughing in the corridors, in Madrid where the famous ice rink "el palacio de hielo" has been transformed into a gigantic hospital hall dotted with beds. But the worst part, however, is that those on the front line, nurses, stretcher-bearers, nursing assistants are not sufficiently protected, such a caregiver cries because she has no mask, no blocker, such a nurse in Madrid, cut her blouse in a green plastic bag. Thus, undeniably, some of those at the front are contaminated - coronavirus is now declared a occupational disease for hospital staff. So, with the outpouring of the virus, and the overflow of the sanitary system, death has returned to velvet steps, discreet, elegant, well present in the shadows.
Dr. Pitti from Metz Hospital talks about "prioritization." Three kinds of patient for resuscitation. 1. The one you don't take. ("Poveretto!") 2. The one we take, because there is a therapeutic hope, but "up to a certain point."3 The one who has every chance. Let us remember that 80.9% of infections are mild, 13.8% severe, and 4.7% are critical.
What else is on the menu?
An application is being studied, to "track" corona patients. It locates them and proposes alternative paths so as not to approach them.
730,000 people are partially unemployed.
The prisoners of Fleury Mérogis revolt - their prison is a bath of culture -, 5000, at the end of their sentence, will be released - "tested with the PCR", it is hoped.
We are looking for 2000 seasonal workers in the world of agriculture.
India has just ordered the total containment of 1 billion 3 inhabitants - the images of desert Bombay are puzzling. A challenge - 75 million Indians live on the streets...
Meanwhile in Paris, the confined organize themselves. The initiative "in my street" establishes exchanges of buildings to buildings, via windows, flute concerts, extract from the Traviata, all talents are called to express themselves at open crosses, in addition to the exchange of coloring for children, stories read live by "Tonton Nico". And at 8:00 p.m., it's the sacrosanating healthy appointment, we open the window, and we walk virtually on the "stradoune", or the "paseo" - we removed his comfort pajamas, and the beautiful, if they want, make themselves more beautiful for the ovation and the concert of pots and pans to those who are at the front.
There will be an "after," yes. The day will come when, blinking, we will find the light of day - and can mourn our dead.