- While the wearing of the mask will become compulsory in France in closed public places, some internet users refuse in advance to wear it, arguing that it does not protect them from the Covid-19.
- If the masks for the general public do not effectively protect their wearer, they do however prevent contamination of those around them.
- For Dr. Jonathan Favre, whom we interviewed, "there is clearly a scientific consensus around the question of the benefits of wearing a generalized mask in controlling the spread of the virus".
They do not have huge pick-ups decorated with a multitude of American flags, or megaphone to shout "Stop with the masks!" If you wear a mask, you are a clown ", as was the case on the margins of the Donald Trump meeting in Tulsa on June 20, but, like the United States, there seem to be people in France who refuse to wear protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
On social networks, anti-mask publications are multiplying, like this one, found on Facebook: "To all the idiots who criticize those who are against the wearing of the mandatory mask ... what is your argument for that? Note: non-medical, single-use mask. It's time for the masquerade to stop! This charming message echoes the photograph of a sachet of "3 ply blue hygiene masks" on which is written that "this product does not protect against viral and infectious contamination".
But is it good enough to conclude that wearing a mask in public space does nothing to limit the risk of the spread of the new coronavirus? Nothing is less sure.
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After turning on the government on its management of mask stocks from the start of the epidemic in France, now some French people are attacking him for castigating the future decree announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex on the obligation wearing a mask in closed public spaces and which will be effective "next week". Problem, the argument that we have just quoted in the preamble (why not wear masks if they do not protect the people who put them on?) Has little legitimacy.
"It is nonsense since surgical masks or the general public are rightly supposed to protect others and not ourselves by preventing the projection of the droplets emitted by the person wearing the mask", strangles Jonathan Favre, doctor and member of the Stop Postillons collective created at the very beginning of the health crisis to "call for the wearing of a mask generalized to the whole population. "He sees in this opposition of anti-masks an amalgam between" a kind of political position and pseudo-scientific beliefs like the idea that one could be intoxicated with one's own CO2 by wearing a mask ".
No, prolonged use of the mask does not deprive oxygen https://t.co/Ex1JL4OCgk
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) May 7, 2020A scientific consensus around the question of masks
For Jonathan Favre, “there is clearly a scientific consensus around the question of the benefits of wearing a generalized mask in controlling the spread of the virus. Especially since many people are asymptomatic and therefore do not know that they are carriers of the virus. "The problem, recognizes the doctor, is that we cannot have high-level studies of evidence on this question as we would with drugs, since we cannot experimentally ask people to expose themselves to the virus with or without a mask to prove its effectiveness. So we only have observational evidence, where we notice for example that the R of the spread of the virus [the basic reproduction rate of a virus] is much lower in the areas which made the wearing of the mask compulsory ” .
For this, the members of the Stop Postillons collective take the example of the German city of Jena, which has made the wearing of the mask compulsory for all the population in shops, public transport and at the workplace. from the beginning of last April. Result:the restriction measures associated with the wearing of the mask made it possible to stop the spread of the virus. “On April 9, we had 155 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 population. Since then, this figure has not changed, the city still has 155 cases, not one more, ”explained Thomas Nitzsche, the mayor of Jena, on April 24, to our colleagues in France 24.
"A lack of clear communication about the masks"
At a time when two camps face each other and rage over social media around the question of wearing a widespread mask in closed public places, Jonathan Favre refuses to point the finger at the antis. "The problem is that we have not explained at all that the mask was made to protect others and that, suddenly, the interest of the port could only be collective," he regrets. This is the criticism that was made against the government at the start of the crisis, which was not a criticism of the lack of means, but more of a lack of clear communication vis-à-vis the mask . "
Hence a small remedial course just for you: “It is useless to wear a surgical mask or general public in an enclosed space if 20 people around you do not wear one. The interest, once again, is to protect others, explains the doctor. And if we protect others, if we all wear it, we also protect ourselves. The mask allows everyone to be free. Free to be able to find yourself in a public space without fear of being sick or contaminating others. However, not wearing a mask excludes fragile people from the community, since they cannot be sure of being protected by others in this environment. "
New # banner! # Publichealth # MonMasqueTeProtège😷🤿 @ univ_lille @CHU_Lille @SPostillons
Excellent day 🥐☕️ and great summer to all ☀️ pic.twitter.com/Bw41uuhEr3
Most countries are coming to it gradually
There is no longer any doubt that wearing a mask, in addition to strict compliance with barrier gestures, is one of our main allies in this fight against the Covid-19. Most countries are gradually coming there, encouraged in particular by the new WHO recommendations, which finally admitted at the beginning of June that "the possibility of transmission by air in public places, particularly crowded , cannot be excluded ”. Consequently, she "advises governments to encourage people to wear a general mask".
"We now have evidence that if done correctly, it can serve as a barrier [...] for potentially infected droplets," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical expert on Covid-19, at the beginning of June. With the forthcoming publication of the decree requiring the wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces, the government hopes to curb the spread of the virus, even as "weak signals of resumption" of the epidemic, in the words of the Minister of Health , Olivier Véran, are reported in Parisian hospitals and that Mayenne now has several new outbreaks. Now there is only hope that the French submit en masse.
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