I called my lecture for the academic year 2019-2020 " Ultima verba ", as it marked the end of the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Chair created in 2008. On January 22 2020, I gave my closing lecture entitled " A world without microbes ? " and subtitled " Thou shalt love thy microbes as thyself ". Ironically, my lectures, in which, since my opening lecture in November 2008, I had regularly warned of the risk of emergence or re-emergence of potentially pandemic infectious diseases, ended just as the first cases of Covid-19 were beginning to be detected in our country..
As far as the seminars are concerned, I was keen, in this closing year, to honor the contributions of Pasteur researchers.