SARS COV 2 PANDEMIC - BETWEEN CAUTION AND PRUDENCE

There is no doubt that a natural phenomenon of the magnitude of a pandemic requires a series of tough precautionary measures in order to limit the spread of the disease, to combat the manifestations of the disease by appropriate therapeutic means and to increase the resistance of the population through prophylactic immunisation, namely vaccination. At the same time, caution points out that not all precautionary measures achieve their aim, for at least two reasons: first, it is an extremely versatile micro-organism (like any virus) which can change its genetic configuration through mutations, thus retaining its main characteristics; contagiousness and pathogenicity; second, the preventive measures initially used: quarantine, mask and physical distancing, have proved to be totally outdated and ineffective in today's conditions (economic interdependence, population movement, overpopulation of the planet). The very vaccination on which so much hope was pinned has failed to stem the new pandemic waves (3 and 4), even in countries where the vaccine immunisation rate has exceeded 70%. The three major means of prevention are reviewed which, beyond the immense frustration they have produced in the population, have had a devastating socio-economic impact, and the results of forcible imposition have produced insignificant results. It has been demonstrated once again that the global approach to the pandemic is doomed to failure (witness the successive waves) and that precautionary measures are illusory. Thus, between precaution and prudence, prudence must prevail in order not to replace an existing evil with a greater evil. The only effective measures remain outbreak control with specific means (which epidemiologists know very well) and immunisation by vaccine.