“I hesitated a lot yesterday morning but I was too afraid to infect my parents. I didn't want to take the risk. "Monday, at the dawn of a total confinement, Jérémie, 28, could have rushed into a train towards the Southwest, as hundreds of Ile-de-France did, in order to reach the comfort of a family home often with a garden. But the young man finally preferred to live these restrictions from his apartment, rather than risk infecting his loved ones, with a virus which he does not know if he is a carrier.
Should we leave to go green and threaten to spread the Covid-19? Or stay locked up at home, sometimes alone, in the city? This dilemma, many French people have experienced it since the first speech by Emmanuel Macron who, last Thursday, already hovered the threat of drastic containment measures, faced with the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
"I thought we might have been bullshit ..."
Amélie (borrowed name), 35, chose on a whim to join the house where her parents, her sister and her nephews and nieces live, in Ille-et-Vilaine. But as soon as arrived safely with his companion, Monday morning, a doubt assailed him. "I said to myself that we might have done some bullshit ... I'm afraid we are healthy carriers," she says.
Her decision was made over the weekend. “I reacted a little selfishly, I told myself that I was not going to last five weeks without leaving our 50 m2. My father, who is a doctor, was reassuring, my mother too. But my spouse was fundamentally against it, he was afraid of spreading the virus, ”also explains Amélie. She finally succeeds in convincing him and the couple leaves at dawn. "The roads were empty, we had a bit of a feeling of being fugitives, but at least we were not going to crowd in the stations with thousands of people," she said.
It is on the road that the first doubt springs. “I have read several articles, particularly on people at risk. If my mother, who has a cardiac history, falls ill and is one of the 5% of serious cases, I will never forgive myself… ”Since Monday, she has therefore done her utmost to avoid close contact with her family. "We keep our safety distances, we wash our hands 100 times a day, we pay attention to the cutlery, to ventilate as much as possible ..."
"It was a big dilemma"
The young woman no longer knows what to think, faced with this spread which now affects all of France. “Some friends called me irresponsible, others tell me But stop panicking . The worst part is that when I imagine myself in Paris, I'm still super relieved to be here, ”she breathes. Amélie puts forward a blunt argument: her brother-in-law, who lives in the same place, rubbed shoulders with relatives who had themselves participated in the religious gathering in the Haut-Rhin, where hundreds of people were infected at the end of February. "My brother also has a friend whose three colleagues have been infected and my father works in the hospital, so we are not the only ones at risk, but I would not want to add a layer," insists the thirty-something.
Monday evening, at the time of Emmanuel Macron's speech, Alice, a 26-year-old consultant, was on a train between Paris Angers. Return to the family home. "It was a big dilemma," she says. "My mother, who is 56 and in good physical shape, even more athletic than me, told me to come, but I had big doubts. "
His fear? The congestion of hospitals, which could lead caregivers to prioritize cases. "If she is infected at 56, I am not sure that she will be accepted in the hospital, if there are younger cases," says Alice. However, this Paris resident could not imagine staying confined for at least two weeks in her 30 m2. "With the recent strikes, we have already had a glimpse of the isolation ... I was quite anxious about staying in Paris". Since her arrival, she has been careful to apply the barrier measures.
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Others have given up joining their loved ones, even if it means suffering from isolation, by applying the precautionary principle. Like Raf, a 26-year-old translator who lives in Montreuil. He could have spent the next 15 days - or more - under the Toulon sun, where his parents live. “They insist very much that I join them. They prefer to be sick with me than in good health without me, ”he explains. But the idea was quickly wiped from his mind and the fear of infecting his parents took over. "I think we have to take a little responsibility, even if it means making sacrifices of comfort," insists the young man who lives in a 15 m2 studio.
Same state of mind with Aurore and Claire. The first has given up on joining her parents' farm in Normandy. "When my partner was teleworked on Friday, we considered going to their place the following week," says Aurore. But after the decision to close most public places, we felt that total containment would follow. And the first hesitations arise. "I realized that if we all did this without knowing if we were healthy, we would spread the virus on our way, while in Normandy there are few cases," says the young woman. Despite the temptation, we gave up and the containment started on Sunday for us. She says she feared for her parents, over the age of 65, and her disabled brother.
For Claire, a Breton who studies in Marseille, the reasoning is similar. "Since I study in a big city, with many promiscuous opportunities, there are many chances that I am a healthy carrier without knowing it," she says. No question then of getting in touch with his parents. “My mother is 60, my father 72, so they are fragile. And within the framework of this pandemic, they would undoubtedly not be priority in the event of lack of respiratory apparatus… "The young woman, who convinced her sister not to gain Brittany, assumes her choice," even if that means stay alone for a month or two in a rather small apartment. ” And regret not having been more imitated: "I think that the students who returned to their parents make them take risks selfishly, to win a few strolls in the countryside. "
Coronavirus: they leave Paris before the reinforced confinement