ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on this small, multilingual, mountainous country of 8.5 million inhabitants. It presents the preliminary results of a medical anthropology study called SociocoViD, which was developed as part of an epidemiological project on transmission and immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. SociocoViD is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. A wind of panic blew throughout Switzerland in March 2020 when the first cases of C-19 were diagnosed there. Social distancing and gestes-barriere represent core measures that have been upheld during the pandemic in Switzerland. The trust and flexibility that health authorities manifested towards the population through the valorization of individual responsibility placed the weight of the moral responsibility to navigate between risk and protection on individuals. The normative character of the flexible regime appeared, for example, when groups of the population were specifically pointed to and blamed for their “irresponsible” behaviors.
