Overview

In this text, Marta Abatepaulo de Faria puts COVID-19 and fear side by side, as pandemics that advance over bodies and communities in parallel. The uncertainty, the lack of knowledge about the unfolding of the new virus, the unexpected variations in its impact, not only feed people’s anxiety, but the anguish and stress of the health professionals themselves, compressing their daily lives, from the most routine gestures in the work space to their "risky" physical contacts with family. The author ends by pointing out the need for a careful reading on "our" mental health, due to the wider consequences of the pandemic; its impact on work and income, its intrusion in our proximity to older people, banning hugs and farewells, not forgetting the way it dismantled, without a definite deadline, the future(s) we expected.