An increase in cases in the summer, an epidemic resumption at the start of the school year… Each time, we seem surprised by these Covid outbreaks. However, Sars-CoV-2 has been circulating for four years now. And its rhythm turns out to be almost as regular as that of a metronome, tell us the scientists who follow it in wastewater for research purposes: one wave every two to two and a half months. In truth, the virus never disappeared from their records, except for a few weeks after the first lockdown, and in the spring of this year.
Yet we would like to believe that he is no longer there. Certainly, hospitalizations and deaths have become much rarer. But this forgets that Sars-CoV-2 is still causing damage: long Covid, damage to different organs, disruption of social life, increase in sick leave – even if the virus is, surprisingly, largely absent from the debates on the cost of daily allowances. It is to forget, above all, that the more it circulates, the more opportunities it will find to mutate and play tricks on us.
We could protect ourselves from it, at a relatively limited cost. Inform the public better than today about its real level of traffic. Vaccinate ourselves, especially if we are at risk. Wear a mask when you are sick, or in hospital, and invest in indoor air quality, which would also limit the scale of flu and bronchiolitis epidemics. Obviously, we prefer to suffer the attacks of viruses rather than prevent them…