Covid-19: our duty to remember calls for the return of containment ! [Letter to the editor]

It may seem premature to discuss the lessons that humanity will have to learn from the Covid-19 pandemic while many countries are still in the storm. But we must prepare for peace in times of war as we prepare for war in times of peace. What will be left of the Covid-19 pandemic?

Chances are that, in a few years’ time, the event will have lost its gravity and will be no more than a simple memory, lodged in some corner of our minds. The virus will soon return to the imagery of the epidemics of the past. It will be a resolute, controlled threat, from which no individual or collective lessons will have been learned, except that the human species always survives.

Yet, through a simple measure, it would be possible to ensure that the memory of the event remains in each one of us and nourishes our humanity: what if , when the threat will be over, we live a whole day of strict containment every year?

The idea may seem absurd at first glance. In reality, it is not. The containment we experience is not bad in itself. It is our first line of defence against the virus. It allows the planet to catch its breath. It provides us with invaluable living time.