A medical evacuation from Paris to Bordeaux, March 14, 2021. -

Jacques Witt / SIPA

  • A year after confinement, which began on March 17, 2021, some regions are in the red and France faces the threat of a third epidemic wave.

  • The restrictions in place to curb the epidemic remain strong: restaurants and places of culture still closed, curfew at 6 p.m. in mainland France, limited trips abroad, localized reconfinement at weekends in Dunkirk or Nice ...

  • “There is a feeling of burn-out, of telling yourself that you can't get out of it.

    To hear the term confinement again today, when we would like to hear the words "vaccine" or "improvement of restrictions", this causes a lot of misunderstanding and anger, "deciphers psychiatrist Serge Hefez.

Transfers of patients, alert level in intensive care and threat of confinement… Doesn't that remind you of something?

There is a little air of déjà vu, as France is preparing to commemorate a year of confinement: the epidemic is still there.

And with it, restrictions increasingly difficult to live with, and delays in the delivery of vaccine doses ... At the time of making a first assessment of the situation, this impression of having returned to the starting point is it justified?

It is clear that this impression of standing still is shared by many readers of

20 Minutes

, to whom we have asked their opinion.

“The first confinement went well, but today I'm angry.

I don't know who or what against, but there is a feeling of fed up.

There is no longer any stability in my life, no more motivation, and I have stopped hoping that life will return to normal, ”says Julia.

“We have just stolen a year of our life and we have the impression that a return to normality is not on the table!

Morale is at its lowest and the future is uncertain, ”adds Paul.

On the razor wire

A feeling of discouragement explained by psychiatrist Serge Hefez.

“It's normal, exactly the same thing is happening as last year, we have the impression that history is stammering.

There is an impression of already being lived, ”explains Serge Hefez.

“All tragedies are modeled after repetition.

It is as if it gave an inescapable destiny.

"

Marie, she recounts her amazement to be in the same situation as last year: “I graduated in June.

At that time, I thought the hard part was behind us.

It is also thanks to this prospect that I held out during the first confinement, which spoiled my last year of studies, without this hope, I would not have supported it.

So to find yourself in a similar situation a year later, it seems unreal.

If I had been told this last March, I wouldn't have believed it.

"

"We have keys that we didn't have last year"

“During the first confinement, which was an exceptional measure, we were full of strength and energy to accept the unacceptable, the loss of freedom, for a limited time and better days.

Today, it is difficult to take it in those terms.

There is a lot of resignation, ”explains Serge Hefez.

“There is a feeling of burnout.

When you put your head out of the water, you have the impression of diving back into it.

Hearing the term confinement again today, when we would like to hear the words "vaccine", causes a lot of misunderstanding and anger.

Some have the feeling of being led by boat, ”he translates.

And yet, even if there are similarities, France is far from being in the same situation as last year, recalls epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva.

“There are very clear differences with last year.

We know this disease, we have a vaccine, we know how to treat it better, we also know its power of epidemic development, we have keys that we did not have a year ago, ”he believes.

“We also have a population that protects itself much more.

When confinement was decreed last year, we had not put in place any barrier gesture.

This is reflected in the reproduction rate of the virus, which was 3 last year, and which is now 1.10.

"

European models

However, despite all the measures put in place, the epidemic continues to progress, at the cost of sacrifices for the entire population.

“First there are the new variants, which largely explain why the measures implemented are not enough.

This is disappointing, but it is also explained by the change in the virulence and transmissibility of the strain, which is not exactly the same as last year.

Another parameter: "The choice of Europe to live with the virus turns out to be a bitter failure, at all levels: health, social and economic.

This is one of the great lessons that we will have to draw at the end of this pandemic, ”notes Antoine Flahault, for whom the future is at stake in countries which are testing“ living without the virus ”.

"We are going to have four European models which should pave the way: Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Ireland", countries which have chosen to reconfigure their populations.

“Perhaps these countries, which have drooled over it, which are starting to get rid of the virus, will not want to go in a third wave.

Their strategies could then be implemented in the rest of Europe.

As Italy and Germany face a third wave and tighten their restrictions even further, France's future looks increasingly uncertain.

Health

Coronavirus: Transfers of patients between regions, how does it work?

Health

Coronavirus: Nearly four in ten young people have gained weight since the first confinement, according to our OpinionWay barometer

  • Confinement

  • Coronavirus

  • epidemic

  • Society

  • Covid 19