Maximilien Delvallée, 29, is a creative consultant for brands.
To discover
Michel Houellebecq: "A civilization which legalizes euthanasia loses all rights to respect"
Mr Pialoux, I watched your speech at Laurence Ferrari and I must say that, even if I cannot claim to be the spokesperson for young people, I felt it was my duty to react to it.
You said: "
It is said a lot that young people are suffering, but there were fewer suicides in 2020 than in 2019 [...] We have made confinement the forbidden word too much
".
As Vincent Tremolet de Villers rightly pointed out on Twitter, “
A doctor shouldn't say that
”.
I understand that your life, as a researcher, as a health official, has changed only marginally over the past year.
Of course, the work is hard in the hospital, but you can exercise normally, which has become a luxury during the health crisis.
In the evening, you go home and, surely, you find your family.
But a lot of young people, you see, don't have your chance.
For example, for my part, I have the misfortune of being one of the young French people whose parents live abroad, very far from here.
Health measures having made travel impossible in some countries, I haven't seen my parents for almost… a year and three months.
The tearing of some families during the epidemic is a subject little covered by the media, but it does exist.
For the young independent that I am, the health restrictions have meant the death of some development projects of my company: my dreams.
And of course, this personal experience is still nothing compared to the deadly angst COVID-19 is bringing to our economy.
This variable is often ignored or even despised until the highest peak of the state, while many, since the arrival of COVID-19, trumpet wanting to "
save lives above all
".
This is because the opposition between economy and life stems from a misunderstanding.
The economy is nothing more than an essential manifestation of our life.
“
Oiko-nomia
”, in Greek, means “
the administration of the house, of the hearth
”.
And if confinement - that word you regret is “
forbidden
” - sends us back home, it is killing the economy.
For the young independent that I am, the health restrictions have meant the death of certain development projects of my company: my dreams, in other words.
Read also:
Covid: "Young people will have to bear the weight of an abysmal debt"
Since March 2020, the recession of the French economy (8.2% in 2020, unprecedented) has become much more than a figure for young French people: it is a sword of Damocles which threatens our jobs, our pensions, our future.
In short, our very life, when your career, moreover glorious, is already well behind you.
So when you put the suffering of young people into perspective, even a little, even awkwardly, your every word sounds like obscenity of the worst kind.
Especially since your assessment of the situation of young people is biased, not to say dishonest.
The truth is, on the contrary, that French youth are today in tatters.
Because the depression and suicidal urges of 2020, unfortunately, will be the tragedies of 2021.
The truth is, on the contrary, that French youth are today in tatters.
Because the depression and suicidal urges of 2020, unfortunately, will be the tragedies of 2021.
Since confinement, 11-year-old children go to the therapist saying they want to die.
Child psychiatric hospitals are exploding, and fear, like you, of having to sort the sick one day.
The students go to the soup kitchen.
The young artists cry out in their distress, while some of their own are already killing themselves.
Certainly, there are families where confinement, spent in opulent second homes, has almost been a pleasant break.
But in poor neighborhoods, where families live in small areas, domestic violence reaches alarming proportions, with the consequences we know about children.
Read also:
Coronavirus: The return home of the Tanguy generation
In terms of lifestyle, addictions are increasing, as revealed by the COVIPREV survey.
Sedentary lifestyle, a major health problem according to the WHO, prepares the psychiatric and cardiovascular diseases of tomorrow.
When we hear from some of your colleagues, it is absolutely remarkable to note that confinement seems to escape the traditional “
benefit-risk
”
calculation for them
.
If there is indeed a debate that seems “
forbidden
” today, it is that of excess mortality caused by health measures, which is however the subject of studies.
We know well that between the increase in poverty and the weakening of minds, it is our future that the confinement mortgages.
Indeed, let us recall as a simple example that unemployment kills between 10,000 and 14,000 per year, and that for each percent increase in unemployment, cancers also increase.
And who will be the first victims?
Young people, not boomers, who throughout their lives will have experienced growth and recklessness, when our world, between COVID and global warming, promises to be hell.
Thanks to them!
In truth, what some of your colleagues refuse to say is that confinement is nothing more than a little life taken from the young to give it to the old.
Far from being an image, it is a scientific reality described by studies.
The closure of schools, called for by your colleague William Dab, has, in the United States, reduced the life expectancy of children.
And we know well that between the increase in poverty and the weakening of minds, it is our future that the confinement mortgages.
We accepted this risk, even when we did not agree.
Even when it looked like there were alternatives to containment, proposed by scientists at Harvard and Stanford.
Indeed, you see Mr. Pialoux, we care about our boomers, we care about our elders.
And we are ready for a lot for them.
But suffer that in view of our sacrifice, the unbearable lightness of certain confinists revolts us.
