Many cities have recently decided to force their residents and tourists to wear a mask to limit the resurgence of contamination. For Emmanuel Hirsch, professor of medical ethics at the University of Paris-Saclay, "we should be proud to have the possibility of wearing the mask" in the current context.

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.