Friday, December 31, 6:45 p.m. The cell phone starts screaming, an unbearable noise, immediately followed by the radio, another unbelievable squeak, interrupting the usual chants to warn of the curfew which fell, that evening, like a guillotine on the head of an influencer on the party.
We had been warned, but still. Was it necessary to drive the point home at this point? When the time comes to take stock of the mistakes made during this indefatigable pandemic – monkish work is on the horizon – we will have to put the curfew at the top of the list. Long before, moreover, Dr. Arruda in the direction of Public Health. Was it really necessary to create this climate of fear and apprehension for a measure that has not proved its worth, which further weakens the most vulnerable – the homeless, abused women, essential workers – not to mention the discretionary powers offered grazing on the police?
Hospitals are overflowing and the authorities do not know where to turn. We understand them; we would also worry in their place. However, by dint of “show measures” which do not always reach their target (Quebec remains the champion of new infections in Canada) and which border on the violation of democratic rights, we do more than accumulate blunders. We undermine the social contract. We are breaking the tacit, essential understanding, based on the trust between voters and elected officials, that “things are going to be fine”.
Recently interviewed by the American media Stat, WHO Executive Director for Emergencies Michael Ryan – the chief general of the pandemic, if you will – admitted that what had upset him the most for two years was the lack of confidence in authorities. “Coherence, coordination, solidarity – all very necessary – are difficult to achieve in a society which does not trust the government, which no longer believes that the authorities are there to protect it. “
The resignation of Dr. Horacio Arruda, Monday evening, seeks precisely to increase the degree of confidence in the authorities. But by putting his head gently on the chopping block, the good doctor only confirms his role as scapegoat. The issues are much broader. Behind the personal shortcomings of the fallen director is the poor child that has been public health for ages. Behind this skin of sorrow lies the obese and elitist presence of the health system itself, overpaid and yet still short of resources. And hovering above it all, a computerized, globalized world, the world of Big Business and Big Pharma, capable of producing innovative vaccines in six months, but unable to distribute them equitably around the world.
Imbalance is everywhere
This social divide, this loss of confidence, this inability to project into the future – because that is what it is – is not due solely to the pandemic. The dystopia that we have been living for two years has accentuated the unease, that’s all. An American doctor says she is mystified by the stubborn refusal of some of her patients to be vaccinated. As a doctor, Danielle Ofri spends her time making recommendations that many of her patients strongly oppose: colonoscopy, insulin intake and other interventions. “We argue. Some will end up maintaining their refusal, but at least we spoke, we understood each other, ”she wrote on her blog. Faced with vaccines against COVID, she discovers, in patients who are far from being conspirators, a silent obstinacy, punctuated by a simple “I do not trust”.
Basically, it is not the lack of information or scientific knowledge that is to blame; it is a mistrust vis-à-vis theestablishment – medical or other. “We are dealing with a political epidemiology as well as a clinical one,” says Dr. Ofri.
As with the movement behind Donald Trump, the phenomenon of protest that has developed during the pandemic is not solely a matter of Ostrogoths or the far right. Unfortunately, it’s not just oddballs who vote for the king of fake news, or who refuse the vaccine. It is washing your hands of it to see the problem that way. There are more and more people who feel held hostage by a system that does not always have their best interests at heart. Examples of this systemic indifference, highlighted by the current crisis, abound: the plight of old people, social inequalities, neglect in schools and the arts, the environmental crisis, not to mention our functioning parliaments. half, according to “emergency measures”, without accountability.
Yes, there are people who don’t give a damn about living together, but the disenchantment is actually much wider than one would like to believe. Polls have also started to reflect this form of collective disillusionment. In its annual report, the firm Nanos notes that the mood has changed in Canada for a year. Pessimism (29%) or anger (21%) are the dominant emotions regarding the state of the nation. Young people, who risk paying the price for all these dysfunctions, have a particularly low cackle.
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