It had been an unspoken rule for a long time between Kevin Dereppe, 24, and his grandmother: if the latter’s shutters were still not open at 11 a.m., there was a problem and you had to come and see her. . That morning, on his way home from college, Kevin noticed that his grandmother’s shutters, which he sees from his window, were closed. Entering her house to check on her, he hears a jerky breath guiding him to the bedroom where he finds her, lying in bed, unconscious. Taken to the hospital, she will never wake up from the coma in which she is plunged and will die four weeks later, on February 11, 2022, from Covid-19. She was 71 years old.
Despite an Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 less severe than the previous ones, the fifth wave of the epidemic claimed many victims and continues to kill in France. As of March 6, 160 people were still dying from it every day in hospitals and in accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad). We are certainly far from “Boeing that crashes every day”, shock image advanced by infectious disease specialist Gilles Pialoux in April 2021 to denounce the 300 daily deaths, absent from political discourse a few weeks before deconfinement.
“Form of trivialization”
But it is difficult not to draw a parallel with last year, when the government announced the lifting of the obligation to wear a mask in all closed places (except transport) from March 14. The epidemic seems to be moving further and further away from the concerns of the French population, in a hurry to return to a normal life. “Deaths due to Covid are rarer today, many of us have already caught it so there is a form of trivialization which is normalrecognizes Kevin Dereppe. But, when it affects the family, it’s different. »
Especially since it was then that he discovered that his grandmother had chosen not to be vaccinated. Fragile lungs, she feared more possible adverse effects of vaccines than those of the disease. “She knew the risk and she preferred to take itanalyse Kevin a posteriori. She died with her ideas; we can’t redo the past”, adds the young man, determined not to judge the choices of his grandmother. Despite everything, testifying to his death seems important to him: “This story needs to have significance for older people who are not vaccinated. So that my grandmother did not die in vain. »
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