It was a lighting, global spread rarely seen in recent human history, comparable in scale to the Spanish flu of 1918. Since December 31, 2019, the date of the first reports of the first cases of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China, a large part of the human population has been contaminated with Covid-19, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the 776.8 million cases officially recorded over five years in 234 countries, 7 million people have died – although the figures are surely higher. In France, the total death toll in 2023 was at least 168,000. Five years on, Covid-19 has become normalized, even trivialized, establishing itself as one of the new troubles to deal with on a daily basis.

"For a virus, this is an evolutionary success story the likes of which have rarely been seen in such a short space of time," pointed out Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. "The virus has explored all possible combinations to adapt and continue its spread, despite the fact that the population has gradually become immune to it through vaccination or infection." Alpha, beta, gamma, delta: From the original strain identified in Wuhan, the Greek alphabet had to be run through to omicron to name the new variants deemed to be of concern, which emerged as mutations occurred, acquiring new characteristics in terms of virulence, contagiousness and immune escape. Along the way, many of these viruses were as quickly forgotten as they were replaced, but the Omicron variant has reigned supreme since its emergence at the end of 2021 in southern Africa.

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