Five years ago, at this same time, the world began to hear about a mysterious infectious disease that had appeared in China, in the city of Wuhan. It was the start of a pandemic affecting the entire world and the results of which have not yet been fully established. Between the figure of 780,000 confirmed deaths and WHO estimates of up to 13 million deaths, knowledge is still very fragmentary. An investigation, mentioned in our pages, questions the slowness of political responses and the unpreparedness revealed by the crisis, particularly through the mask scandal.
Another assessment, however, remains to be written, and it questions the long-term effects of this crisis. Repeated confinements, the confinement of entire populations connected to the world by social networks, have led to another confinement, this time psychological. The mental health of the population as a whole has deteriorated. Family abuse has exploded, generations have seen their school careers disrupted and, among older generations, accustomed to a well-defined world, conspiracy and distrust of knowledge and science have completely exploded. Politically, traditional leaders were frozen in the belief that they embody reason, while on the other hand, libertarians, anti-vaxxers and simplists placed their trust in narcissistic figures devoid of empathy. The toll of the pandemic is still being written before our eyes.
