THE’Academy of Medicine is calling this Wednesday all French people to wear without delay a protective mask for the general public, even artisanal, as soon as they leave their homes. In the absence of an effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and drug, this is the only way to “prevent person-to-person transmission of the virus”.
Why wear a mask all the time?
The Academy of Medicine notes that social distancing measures (staying 1 m from each other) are found to be limited in use in confined spaces. They are “restrictive” for users who must pass each other within a meter, “especially in elevators, shops and public transport.”
The Academy of Medicine has already recommended in a previous press release the wearing of the anti-projection mask, which according to it is effective to “retain the postilions” projected when one speaks, when one coughs or that one sneezes and to “prevent them. dispersion in the immediate environment. ”She explained that“ people in the incubation period or asymptomatic shed the virus and maintain the transmission of the infection. ”This is, she emphasizes a principle “Altruistic” intended to protect, not the person wearing it, but the people around.
Each family can make “artisan”, “alternative”, “screens” or “barriers” fabric masks, washable and reusable from common, inexpensive materials, the Academy still observes.
A simple recommendation cannot be enough
Wearing the projection mask must be generalized in public spaces. According to the Academy of Medicine, “this measure can only have an epidemiological impact on the circulation of the virus if all individuals apply it as soon as they leave their home. A simple recommendation is not enough, everyone must consider themselves as potentially carrying the virus and contagious, even when they feel in good health. ” Also, it recommends making the wearing of a mask “compulsory in public spaces”.
Don’t wait until May 11
While the government is not currently considering making it compulsory to wear a mask when leaving confinement – except perhaps in public transport – the Academy of Medicine deplores “objections in principle” which ” delay its implementation and promote the persistence of virus transmission ”. She underlines that “restricting the wearing of masks in public transport only is to neglect all public spaces where the risk remains” and “to subordinate this obligation to the free supply of masks by the State, is to reinforce the population in a situation of assistance and disempowerment. ” Finally, she considers that if we wait until May 11 to make the French wear the mask, “it is granting 3 weeks of respite to SARS-CoV-2 so that it continues to be transmitted, it is accepting several thousands of new infections, resulting in several hundred hospitalizations and several dozen additional deaths. ”
Remember that wearing a mask does not exempt from other barrier gestures and that it is necessary to take precautions to put on (and take off) an anti-projection mask.
See tutorial videos for making an alternative homemade mask :
Demonstration by Prof. Daniel Garin, former head of the virology department of the Research Center of the Army Health Service:
