Plagnol, Arnaud

Mental lockdown and restraint - 2020.


19

After a brief review of the severity of the physical and psychological consequences of the lockdown measures ordered as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we discuss the alternative to lockdown provided by the focused protection strategy proposed at an international level by the Great Barrington Declaration. We suggest that the inability of experts and health authorities in France to study this alternative reflects the “mental lockdown” that now pervades the entire French technocracy, which is confirmed by the accelerated vote on the Research Programming Act, now reserving all public funding for work subject to the codified rules of “independent” agencies. We highlight the paradox of a general lockdown while the constitutional liberty of every French citizen is reaffirmed by the requirements of the Constitutional Council regarding the legal framework of isolation and restraint in psychiatry.