Everyone must wear a mask now. This is the appeal launched on Wednesday April 22 by the National Academy of Medicine in a press release entitled “To citizen masks”, while the production of this protective equipment is increasing but remains insufficient in France, overseas and necessarily in Saint-Martin!
Three months after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic on the national territory, in the absence of an effective vaccine and drug against SARS-CoV-2, the only way to fight it is to prevent the transmission of the virus from person to no one. The entry into confinement reinforced the distancing measures applying the principle of “staying one meter from each other”. But it turns out, in use, that these measures are often defective in tight spaces forcing users and customers to meet or get closer within a meter, especially in elevators, shops and public transport.
In order to limit the risk of direct transmission of the virus by droplets projected during speech, coughing and sneezing, wearing an anti-splash mask covering the nose and mouth, intended to retain these postilions and to avoid their dispersion in the immediate environment, was recommended in a recent press release from the National Academy of Medicine.
The "altruistic" principle of this type of mask was underlined by recalling that it was not intended to protect the person who wears it, but the people around it according to the "One for all, all for one" principle. To be effective, the wearing of anti-splash masks must be generalized in public spaces. This measure can have an epidemiological impact on the circulation of the virus only if any individual is compelled to apply it as soon as he leaves his home. A simple recommendation is not enough, everyone should consider themselves as potentially carriers of the virus and contagious, even when they feel healthy. Taking care not to contaminate others is not optional, it is a "citizen" attitude which must be made compulsory in public space. It is possible, in each family, to make masks in fabric "artisanal", "alternative", "screens" or "barriers", washable and reusable from common inexpensive materials.
Despite the obvious need for such a measure, despite its acceptability evidenced by the anticipation of many people who only come out masked, objections in principle delay its implementation and promote the persistence of virus transmission in the community . Restricting the wearing of masks in public transport only means neglecting all public spaces where the risk remains. Subordinating this obligation to the free supply of masks by the State is to comfort the population in a situation of assistance and de-responsibility. Finally, waiting for the date of May 11 to make the French wear the mask is to give SARS-CoV-3 2 weeks of respite so that it continues to be transmitted, it is to accept several thousand new infections, therefore several hundred hospitalizations and several dozen additional deaths.
This is why, France having declared war on Covid-19, the National Academy of Medicine strongly recommends a citizen mobilization for the wearing of the mask.
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