Three years ago, a deadly wave called Covid-19 descended on our world, violently taking the breath of thousands of victims, without them having time to realize what was happening to them. was coming. In a rush commensurate with this planetary crisis, default decisions were then taken by our rulers, also victims of a lack of preparation in the face of a scenario worthy of a disaster movie.
Confinement of the elderly, self-assessment of the deterioration of their state of health for the sick at home, drastic triage for access to hospital care, administrative trips to other health establishments, total exclusion of relatives… the victims of Covid-19 experienced “absolute” measures deemed essential in the face of an invisible enemy.
Dispossessed of a last breath to write a few words in order to express all that they would still have wanted to say to their loved ones or to achieve in their lives, they left alone, “beeps” of the resuscitation to accompany them in their crossing towards death, and “the DASRI bag” (waste from care activities with infectious risk) at their bedside gathering the remains of their passage in this world.
Nobody to hold their hand one last time, nobody to reassure them, ask their forgiveness, tell them I love you. No one to accompany them, nor celebrate their funerals or offer them a last rose. No, it was freezing like the ice in the cold rooms of the Rungis wholesale market.
“The time for hindsight has more than come”
They were “covers” sprinkled with bleach, immediate beers. It was no longer the dead that were honored, but bodies that had to be got rid of as quickly as possible.
Today, these precious moments of which the victims and the families were deprived, these coldly broken ties, we must apologize to our deceased who, gasping for breath, could not express how they experienced these appalling scenes. .
If they are no longer among us to claim a little lost dignity, we can still act, learn lessons from this part of our existence where human beings have been victims of a virus but also of decisions that were lacking. The time to step back has more than come.
We must now, in the name of human dignity and the values that unite us, pay a national tribute to the victims of Covid-19. To deny the need for such a tribute would be to trivialize thousands of respiratory failure deaths caused by the virus and make the weakest among us invisible as soon as they are diminished.
We must also collectively appropriate this duty of memory and bring it loud and clear to our decision-makers. Many democracies have taken the time to salute the memory of their victims. In Spain, a ceremony was held on July 16, 2020 in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid in the presence of King Felipe VI.
In the United States, a tribute in front of the Lincoln Memorial
On March 18, 2021, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi laid a wreath at the Bergamo cemetery. The Italian Parliament passed a law “establishing a day in memory of all the victims of the coronavirus epidemic”, which will be celebrated every March 18.
Beyond European borders, US President Joe Biden paid tribute to the 400,000 American dead on January 19, 2021 at the foot of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. When the 500,000 death mark was passed, the flags were lowered and the Washington church steeple rang 500 times.
This is why we propose to celebrate the deceased of Covid-19 on March 17 of each year. This day corresponds to the moment when France came to a standstill in 2020 to slow down the epidemic and save lives. We also propose, in addition to this commemoration, the commission of a work of art in the name of all these dead, to “never forget them” and “complete what they were”.
As the philosopher Vinciane Despret points out, “we all have the dead in common with whom we have not been able to commune”. Such an achievement would constitute a collective response to the traumatic or unfinished mourning of death resulting from Covid-19 or other causes. Indeed, all families who lost a loved one from March 17, 2020 and for another year had to undergo restrictions on visits and celebrations.
To become a nation on March 17 would be a reconciliation with the human values that were so lacking during these last moments of life. Finally, it would be a good lesson in life for a society capable of learning from its past mistakes, of repairing the present and preparing for the future.
Sabrina Sellami (General Delegate Association Victims of Covid-19; Vice President Coeur Vide 19) and Julie Grasset (President CoeurVide 19)
* List of co-signers:
Marie-Frédérique Bacqué, (Psychoanalyst and University Professor in French Psychology, Professor of Psychopathology at the University of Strasbourg), Emmanuel Hirsh (Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics), Jérome Marty (President UFMLS), Jean-Luc Roméro- Michel (Deputy town hall of Paris, activist against AIDS, LGBTQI activist), Stéphane Dedieu (University professor), Stéphanie Bataille (Screenwriter and actress, Hold your hand collective), Laurent Frémont (Legal expert, Hold your hand collective), Armelle Vautrot (Academic, Trauma and Neurodiversity Expert), Laurent Garcia (President of the Observatory of Old Age), Louis Lebrun (Doctor, public health specialist), Anne-Caroline Clause-Verdreau (Public Health Doctor, Observatory of Ethical Practices, IDF), Blandine Chemin Sauque (Clinical Psychologist), Marie Citrini (User Representative, AP-HP Supervisory Board), Marie-Aude Visine (Covid Long Public Policy Consultant), Livia Sani (Covideuil Psychologist- France), Elisa Zeno for Ecole et Familles Oubliées (Research engineer, co-founder of the collective), Marie Valdes for Families of child victims of covid pims, Arash Derambarsh (Lawyer, French political activist, deputy mayor of Courbevoie), Marie-Odile Magnaudeix (Teacher, CPAE, Circle of caregivers in nursing homes), Annette Debéda (CPAE), Danielle Cabrera (CPAE), Benedicte Witt (CPAE), Jade Lemaire (lawyer, CPAE), Laurence REYNES (Teacher, CPAE), Solenn Tanguy ( Winslow Association, Public Health), Millions Missing France (for the recognition of myalgic encephalomyelitis), Linda Lallali (Association victims of Covid-19), Laure Soulé (Legal expert), Sérine Zaccaria (Nurse, Robert Ballanger Hospital), Nicolas Poussart (Treasurer association CoeurVide19), Françoise Haas (Orphan Covid-19), Corine Soumagne Maysounabe (Journalist), Christian Malapris (CNRS communication engineer).