How can we explain that a civilization which knows quantum mechanics, which set foot on the Moon and which has the means to modify, on its own, the climate of the planet could not have done better to counter a new virus than to lock up its population in a double turn for months? Of course, COVID-19 poses a very serious health threat. However, this is neither the first nor the worst pandemics that humanity has faced in recent history.
In this book, I begin by clarifying the state of scientific knowledge about this virus and how it is transmitted. I then propose a critical reflection on the profound issues that this health crisis has revealed. We see scientific experts locked in their specialty. Journalists who relay this information without taking the time to criticize it or put it into context. A heavily centralized state apparatus left bloodless by the reforms of recent years in the health sector. And politicians who take advantage of all forums to project a paternalistic image and justify in the name of the state of emergency measures that go against our democratic traditions.
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has had enormous costs both economic and human, which fall mainly on the shoulders of young people, women and the most deprived. Yes, there was a way to do things differently. We can learn from our errors and give ourselves the necessary tools to better navigate this crisis and those that the future will not fail to bring us.
Normand Mousseau, Pandémie, quand la raison tombe malade, Éditions du Boréal, 240 pp. (2020).