INTERVIEW
When will the French be able to leave their homes without worrying about their masks? This moment is in any case not imminent, while the wearing of a mask is mandatory in closed public places and many cities have decided to impose it outside to limit a rebound in Covid-19 contaminations. But covering your mouth and nose is not only a matter of constraint, according to Emmanuel Hirsch, professor of medical ethics at the University of Paris-Saclay: "Wearing a mask means taking responsibility for others ", he defends Monday evening on Europe 1.
"Democrat Act"
The fact of accepting to wear a mask in the current context "is not only to protect others from a medical point of view", explains the president of the Council for the ethics of the research and the scientific integrity of Paris-Saclay and director of the Ethical Reflection Space for the Île-de-France region. "When you wear a mask, you wear values", he continues, assured of the fact that this is an "act of a democrat".
If Emmanuel Hirsch recalls the importance of wearing a mask for others, it is because this gesture, still marginal in French society six months ago, does not go without saying at a time when 30,000 people have died in France. . The professor of medical ethics points to a problem of confidence in the relationship of citizens with institutions: "I am amazed that the discourse of politicians and scientists no longer passes, as if there was a crisis of legitimacy", insists the 'university.