Are these mask images distributed in Europe authentic?

• Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, the question of access to masks has come up regularly in France, where they have been lacking for months.
• If the situation is to improve with the sale of large stocks in supermarkets, from May 4, this has given rise to many comparisons with our European neighbors.
• Are these photos or videos supposed to show easier access to the masks they would benefit from, are they authentic? 20 Minutes looked at several of them.

Where are the coronavirus protective masks? The nagging question has been asked on a daily basis since the start of the epidemic, in view of the flagrant lack of stocks in pharmacies and shops.

If the situation is improving - thanks to their sale since last week in pharmacies, and as of Monday in supermarkets, which provides large stocks -, the month of April was marked, on social networks, through frequent comparisons with our European neighbors.

According to different photos and videos relayed on Facebook and Twitter, the latter would indeed be much better endowed than France in terms of access to masks and hydroalcoholic gel. From Portugal to Switzerland via Austria, an overview of the veracity of these images.

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Masks in Portuguese mailboxes?

“In Portugal, municipalities distribute free of charge in mailboxes a kit of 5 masks with a notice reminding barrier gestures. Free masks are also available for all front line workers. Simple, social and efficient, ”said a Facebook post on April 19, accompanied by photos supposed to illustrate his point.

The city of Mafra, near Lisbon, has well distributed masks - in kits of eight and not five - to its 80,000 inhabitants, as reported by the Portuguese press in mid-April. An entirely municipal initiative, local elected officials having themselves ordered a million surgical masks to distribute them in mailboxes and encourage its inhabitants to use one per week when they go out - for a period of two months in the total.

In view of the large stock available, Hélder Sousa Silva, mayor of Mafra, had then redistributed masks in neighboring municipalities.

Masks sold in Swiss supermarkets?

“And during this time, our Swiss friends are selling masks at the supermarket, well done France. Forward ”. Taken up on different Facebook pages - with a commercial link to masks sold "at unbeatable prices" -, this message is accompanied by the photo of a bin of masks, visibly photographed in a supermarket.

If we have not been able to go back to the primary source of this photo, the poster "Aldi price" that we can see allows us to go back to the supermarket chain at low prices. Contacted, the press service of its Swiss branch confirms that we have sold since April 23 "single-use masks in its more than 200 branches throughout Switzerland".

"While the masks in packs of 50 are currently sold out in most branches, the packs of 10 masks are available in many of our 200 branches", continues the brand, which markets these packs of 10 to 7.20 Swiss francs. An amount that can be found by zooming in on the label attached to the mask mask bin in the photo.

This is how it works in Austria, but also in Germany and Switzerland. Date of the video April 17, 2020 for those who still wonder why there are countries with fewer cases and fewer deaths than France.
Gel mask hygiene test compliance pic.twitter.com/o9w58TeQQ1

A very strict health protocol at the entrance of German or Austrian stores?

At the entrance of a store, installed behind a stand, a man with a face protected by a mask sprays hydroalcoholic gel on a customer, before handing him a mask, using pliers. Without forgetting to disinfect the cart of the newcomer while the latter puts on the mask.

This ritual, executed with great precision in a few seconds, would have been filmed in Austria, according to the legend that accompanies this video ... or in Germany, according to other parts of the sequence. If the posters visible behind the employee located at the entrance to the store are well written in German - which is also the official language of Austria -, the sentence "Tragepflicht von schutzmasken" ("Wearing protective masks") legible on its stand allows to identify its origin (failing to go back to its original source).

This slogan is indeed used in the Austrian signs of the chain of stores Spar - whose logo one sees on various elements of the photograph -, within the framework of its anti-Covid-19 measures, as one can check it on the pages Facebook from several local brands.

Its customers are thus offered a free mask upon their arrival in the store. A measure that was applied throughout the Austrian supermarket chain from the beginning of April, before wearing masks became compulsory in stores, as Reuters reported. In Germany, wearing a mask in shops became compulsory throughout the country on April 29.

Austrian supermarkets have begun handing out face masks to shoppers before they become compulsory next week to combat the fast-spreading coronavirus pic.twitter.com/Qoyt58PLxO

Distributors of masks and gel in Poland?

As we mentioned in mid-April, the viral photo of a distributor of masks and hydroalcoholic gel on a street in Warsaw (Poland) was very authentic. It had been installed there shortly before the wearing of the mask became compulsory throughout the country.

Recently, we also find this type of distributor in France, more precisely in Jeumont, in the North, where these "Distribprotec" offer for sale approved fabric masks, pairs of latex gloves and gel bottles. hydroalcoholic.

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