With COVID-19 cases surging worldwide, France extended its lockdown amid overwhelming pressure on healthcare systems. Prof. Gilles Dhonneur, head of intensive care at Paris' Institut Curie, expressed frustration at widespread non-compliance and shared 40 stark reasons to adhere strictly to confinement measures.
Globally, the pandemic had reached approximately 1.8 million cases and nearly 110,000 deaths, prompting confinement or social distancing for 4 billion people. In France, lockdown started on March 17, 2020, and was extended as President Emmanuel Macron prepared to address the nation on April 13. With 130,000 cases and over 13,800 deaths, the epidemic plateaued, sidelining deconfinement discussions.
On April 9, 2020, Le Parisien highlighted a now-deleted Facebook post by Prof. Dhonneur listing 40 reasons to enforce lockdown. Drawing from his frontline expertise, he addressed non-compliant individuals directly, urging a change in behavior.
His post, titled Sismotherapy for the Irresponsible, opens: "To those not respecting confinement, here are 40 reasons to reconsider: 20 for your loved ones and 20 for you. If you're complying, this isn't for you—but share it with those who aren't."
1. Confinement buys time for medical research to test new COVID-19 treatments, averting mass casualties.
2. It ensures ICU beds and ventilators for your father struggling to breathe.
3. It offers a dignified end for your 65-year-old uncle, spared futile resuscitation due to comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
4. It spares your big brother the pain of tracheal intubation.
5. It provides comfort for your grandfather dying alone in an overwhelmed hospital's isolation room.
6. It prevents tears in your family and friends.
7. It allows you to mourn loved ones properly with family present.
8. It preserves muscle mass for your best friend emerging quadriplegic from ICU after severe wasting.
9. It gives your asthmatic sister a fighting chance against prolonged respiratory distress.
10. It maintains your mother's joint mobility after potential weeks on a ventilator.
11. It avoids the grim reality of your mother-in-law incontinent and steeped in corrosive waste during ICU care.
12. It prevents lifelong urinary catheterization for your uncle.
13. It spares your girlfriend's father repeated painful suctioning of COVID-ravaged lung secretions.
14. It keeps your best friend's father from futile mechanical ventilation ending in cyanosis.
15. It ensures pain relief availability during ICU procedures.
16. It guarantees specialized care for your big sister, not overburdened volunteers risking harm.
17. It prevents your nanny's husband from chronic dialysis for COVID-damaged kidneys.
18. It shields you from seeing your big brother with a tracheostomy, jaundiced and catheterized amid oozing lines.
19. It protects your younger brother's lung function from irreversible ventilator-induced damage.
20. It keeps fewer caregivers infected, ensuring professional care for your family.
1. Confinement lets your children bond with their grandparents.
2. It teaches gratitude for underpaid caregivers tending the critically ill.
3. It invites silence to appreciate classical music, Leonard Cohen, and Souad Massi.
4. It prompts reflection on faith amid gatherings fueling outbreaks.
5. It offers chances to see your grandparents again.
6. It boosts your mother's survival odds for future hugs.
7. It paves the way for family milestones like your sister's wedding.
8. It teaches mental travel, unlocking imagination.
9. It encourages connecting with nature's vitality.
10. It revives sensory memories: first love's scent, mother's cooking, jasmine, mint tea.
11. It's not just imagining summer—it's reaching it.
12. It reveals spring's rebirth, inspiring next year's renewal.
13. It fosters deeper love.
14. It creates space for new life.
15. It motivates protecting loved ones from risk.
17. It's simple and free: stay home, applaud caregivers at 8 p.m.
18. It imparts solidarity, benevolence, empathy, humility, humanity.
19. It unveils the protective family cocoon woven by mothers and grandmothers.
20. It promises deconfinement, averts recurrence, and heralds humanity's new era.
