A masked waiter in a Parisian bar, June 15, 2020. - Philippe Lopez / AFP

  • In response to a letter from more than 200 scientists, WHO admitted on Tuesday for the first time that there was evidence of the transmission of Covid-19 by air.
  • According to specialists interviewed by  20 Minutes , this observation is not a revolution. But they insist on respecting the famous barrier gestures to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic in France.

On a subject where public opinion is struggling to keep up with the fluctuating pace of health recommendations, the information has not gone unnoticed. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) admitted that "evidence is emerging" about the aerial transmission of the Covid-19, which it refused to do so far. WHO reacted to a letter from 239 scientists asking it to recognize this type of contamination.

A revolution ? Not really, according to Pierre Delobel. "There is no scoop," says the head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Toulouse University Hospital. I do not think that this will change our behavior, and that we will question everything to say: we must leave 4 m of social distance instead of 1 m or 1.50 m. "

WHO no longer rules out the possibility of an aerial transmission of the Covid-19 https://t.co/gh5MSCONmy

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) July 8, 2020

The specialist rather evokes a "continuum": "SARS-CoV is mainly transmission by droplets, with large particles which do not have very long spans. But under certain conditions, one can indeed imagine that there is a share of air transmission. Perhaps in slaughterhouses where it is cold, with special humidity conditions, transmission is favored, with longer distances. "

Beware of air conditioning

The infectious disease specialist François Bricaire wants to be didactic. "The virus being transmitted from postillions, from the respiratory system, we can imagine that from the moment there is a significant breath, a cough, sneezing, there is a transmission in the air surrounding the individual contaminated, reacts the member of the National Academy of Medicine. Second, the transmission of the virus is most likely facilitated by air conditioning systems. This could explain a strong attack in New York but also in Pakistan in the chic places of the capital [Islamabad] we find this type of equipment. "

But no way to sink into psychosis. "When we walk in the streets of Paris, Toulouse or elsewhere, without meeting someone closely, I'm not sure there is a virus in the air," says François Bricaire. Almost copy and paste of Pierre Delobel's remark. “The public must not think that by walking around, we will catch the Covid-19 while staying away from the others. It remains a disease with human to human transmission, and rather close. "

"The virus is still present and is circulating"

Be careful however ... "It's always better to be outside, but there is no zero risk," warns the Toulouse professor, with particular reference to certain crowded bar terraces. Rather than walking in an urban environment, the real danger lies in the relaxation observed everywhere in the respect of the famous barrier measures, while "the virus is always present and circulating", insists Pierre Delobel. For the followers of "Nothing terrible can happen to us now", the coronavirus and its terrible child, confinement, seem like a parenthesis admittedly cursed, but now closed. And masks it like an almost corny object.

While the application of current health regulations can allow to continue to find, little by little, a normal life, even in a closed environment. Without the need to add more, in a concert hall for example. "Respect for the meter of distance between musicians is more than enough," says François Bricaire, to whom a mutual association of people from the entertainment industry has asked for advice in connection with the deconfinement of cultural events.

“Based on German and Austrian studies, we wanted to know if blowing in a clarinet or another wind instrument was a potential risk of diffusing the virus into the atmosphere. In fact, it does not go very far. "Again, the observation is similar to that of Pierre Delobel:" There is no question of being afraid of transmission by the wind, in the air, in the streets etc ... "Just to be careful ( e).

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