In the hope of quickly returning “to normal”, the successes and failures of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec were quickly swept under the carpet, underlines Laurence Monnais, health historian. However, trying to forget everything and move on would be a mistake, she warns.
“If we don’t take note of what we didn’t do well, the next time we have a pandemic, we’re going to do the same stupid things again,” says the woman who is also a professor of history of medicine and of public health at the Institute of Humanities in Medicine (CHUV-UNIL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is also an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Montreal and lived in the Quebec metropolis from 1994 to 2023.
With illustrator Carolina Espinosa, Mme Monnais is therefore publishing the comic strip these days These vaccinations which (did not) take place. The work arises from an action-research project which reinterprets under-vaccination data from certain Montreal neighborhoods during the health crisis to better understand what happened.
“The most vulnerable were hit harder by the pandemic, which should have been taken into account and which could have been anticipated since, historians in particular know, this is the case with every health crisis,” says She. These communities should have been particularly supported in accessing care and different services, she notes. “It’s a question of fairness which has not necessarily been at the heart of the concerns. »
Laurence Monnais, who took part in the Covivre program aimed at informing, protecting and supporting marginalized communities in the greater Montreal region during the pandemic, was also able to observe certain obstacles to access to vaccination.
Not having an Internet connection at home, for example, made it difficult for some to make an appointment to get vaccinated, she explains. For others, it was impossible to take time off from work to roll up their sleeves. “We haven’t talked enough about these issues. Has it crossed your mind that this might be a problem for some people? No. Well, there you go. »
Break the cycle
By publishing this comic strip, Laurence Monnais affirms that his objective is not to blame the government of Quebec. Rather, she wants us to “break the cycle” which ensures that with each pandemic, the most vulnerable become even more vulnerable.
She believes that we must therefore also remember the initiatives that bore fruit during the health crisis. “The idea is to say that we could benefit from it for the next pandemic, but also on a daily basis, that is to say, to think about what access to care is for people who are in a situation precarious socio-economic. »
Among the lot, she mentions the distribution of information sheets on the vaccine in around fifteen different languages, mobile vaccination and the establishment of a vaccination site against COVID-19 at the Assuna Annabawiyah mosque, in Parc- Extension. “Many people said they wanted to be vaccinated, but in their neighborhood and in their community with people they were familiar with,” she recalls.
When it comes to vaccination and screening, we should not wait for people to come and seek services themselves, believes Ms.me Monnais. “It is we who must go to them. »
The mobility of care, through vaccination or screening trucks, is a concept that has existed for a long time, underlines the health historian. “Couldn’t the State come back more to this type of initiative to both do real prevention and ensure that everyone is equal when it comes to having access to health services? ? »
Mme Monnais also believes that Quebec must remember that it has a “strong history” of community health, particularly with the creation of the network of CLSCs (local community service centers) in the 1970s. “It has had very significant effects on population health. »
During the COVID-19 pandemic, different community groups also played a vital role, she continues.
Some associations mobilized very early, from the first confinement in March 2020, to offer food aid to people or go door to door in certain neighborhoods in order to better understand the needs of residents, she says. . “But we have already forgotten them and, yet, they gave of their time and energy. Some people were exhausted at the end of the health crisis, it must be said,” she emphasizes.