The world will never be the same again, as we heard time and time again during the darkest days of lockdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. First we felt depressed, but then we tried to turn this crisis into an opportunity for our work. This led to the creation of the project “Mappe mentali” (Mental Maps), four digital talks which were streamed online to present Ilaria Capua’s new book, Il Dopo. Il virus che ci ha costretto a cambiare mappa mentale. (The Aftermath. The virus which forced us to change our mental maps)

After editing the latest essay by the virologist and director of the One Health Center of Excellence of the University of Florida, we felt it was necessary, as did Ilaria herself, to reflect on the events industry which had been turned upside down by the need for social distancing.

The four talks were viewed nearly 320,000 times, with Capua talking to other expert speakers on the theme of the pandemic and health from different points of view: a digital perspective (or the Game), with Alessandro Baricco, an economic perspective with Enrico Letta, the issue of sustainability with Enrico Giovannini and the resilience of women with Serena Dandini.

In the book, published by Mondadori, Ilaria Capua, who is one of the most renowned virologists in the world, tries to look beyond the pandemic and focus on its hidden opportunities. The author believes that we can view the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 as a stress test, as a way of measuring how fragile our system is.

This tiny pathogen has created an imbalance of nature for the whole of humanity and led us to rediscover our land and its innate transience, the arbitrary way in which society is organised and the series of values that have led to the concept of public health itself.  In other words, she has taken everything which we believed to be certain and indisputable, and which has now been revealed for what it is – a mere choice, based on a partial vision of things.