While the majority of Quebecers have resumed their pre-pandemic activities, the number of deaths linked to the virus continues to grow. The province is approaching the milestone of 15,000 deaths from COVID-19. Deaths, tragic, now seem to be part of everyday life.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Three months after losing her mother to COVID-19, Suzanne Ménard sends a clear message: the pandemic is not over, and we must continue to protect ourselves. “People think the virus no longer exists. They lift the sanitary measures, but there are still people who die, ”she drops.
Her mother, Jeannine Hamelin, a healthy 95-year-old woman who was triple vaccinated, lived at Résidence de la Gappe in Gatineau. “She was old, but she had no physical problems. No heart disease or diabetes,” says her daughter.
In the midst of the fifth wave, around twenty residents contracted the virus. She was part of it. In the first days of the infection, she was doing well. But everything changed on January 21. In the morning, Suzanne Ménard received a call: on the line, her mother, in distress, asked her to call an ambulance.
Mme Ménard says he had a bad feeling. “I was convinced she was going to die,” she says. On the way to the hospital, Jeannine Hamelin lost consciousness. When she arrived at the hospital, the doctors and the family came to the obvious: she had to be let go.
“I would like everyone to wake up and wear the mask. It’s important,” she says.
Desensitized to death
Since the start of 2022, approximately 3,200 Quebecers have succumbed to COVID-19. In the coming days, Quebec will cross the bar of 15,000 deaths from the virus. After so many tragedies, have we become desensitized to death? Very likely, answer the experts consulted by The Press.
“At the start of the pandemic, everyone was at the end of their seat to find out what was going on. We were constantly monitoring the numbers, the number of cases and the deaths. But over the months, there was a transition. We have forgotten the faces behind these figures, ”notes the Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Dr Donald Vinh in 2017
Overexposure to data, combined with pandemic fatigue, has led Quebecers to see deaths as numbers, argues the Dr Vinh.
Medical anthropologist of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ), Ève Dubé is also of this opinion. “A number of deaths is easy to get around if you don’t stop to think about it. When it’s not our parents, our grandparents, it’s still very abstract,” she says.
Effect on sanitary measures
This trivialization of figures is not without consequences, say the experts.
If we are not afraid of catching the disease, we are much less motivated to adapt our behavior.
Ève Dubé, INSPQ medical anthropologist
In the surveys she has been conducting with the INSPQ since March 2020, she has observed that the perception of the risks of COVID-19 continues to decline.
In the field, the Dr Vinh also observes him daily. “There are patients who are in the hospital because of COVID-19 and who are not paying attention. They don’t wear the mask, they have to be reminded of it and they argue, ”he laments.
This is also the case for some employees of his hospital. “They walk without a mask in the corridors. However, a few meters further, we are treating patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19. There is a disconnect. It doesn’t make sense,” says the doctor.
Experts recall that the pandemic is not over, hence the importance of continuing to respect health measures.
“There are still people who are very sick from COVID-19. We must continue to respect the measures, especially in confined spaces, ”concludes the Dr Vinh, adding in passing that it’s never too late to get your vaccine doses, if you haven’t done so yet.