Covid-19: Faced with omicron, does the outdoor mask really serve something?

Even before a, not yet another health defense council scheduled for Monday, December 27, to try to stem the fifth wave of the Sars-Cov-2 epidemic, the wearing of the outdoor mask returns to France.Several departments have already put it at work during the month of December, among them, Savoy, Loiret, Var, Finistère or even Morbihan.

It has now been six months since the obligation to wear the exterior mask was lifted in France on the national territory.One of the now essential "barrier gestures" was very little appreciated by the French during his first establishment: and for good reason, there were many who denounced the perfect uselessness of this measure to fight against COVVI-19-in addition to harmCompletely to the effectiveness of a pair of glasses.

A consensus that was not only "popular";Some specialists even seized the issue.Asked about LCI on June 14, shortly after the peak of the third wave, epidemiologist Antoine Flahault admitted that in general, the mask worn outside was "not much interest" because "mostTransmissions, if not all of them, take place through aerosols in enclosed, ill -ventilated, crowded environments, where we spend time. ”On the same day, researcher Pascal Crépey explained on Franceinfo that the end of the wearing of the "outdoor mask should not be a problem" for the same reasons.

A symbolic value

In fact, the obligation to wear the outdoor mask has related to a symbolic measure during previous waves.Last June Carvounas, mayor of Alfortville and PS spokesperson for Public Senate last June, this measure of "symbol" to combat the COVVI-19.In other words, this is a way to convey the message that France is faced with a new wave of coronavirus and that barrier gestures must be rigorously respected.In addition, this type of measure would have an "incentive effect", since by seeing people carry a protective mask, the Vulgum Pecus will feel obliged to comply with it.

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Is this the reason why, in recent days, several French and European departments (including Italy, Greece and Spain) reintroduced the measure?Where does the arrival of the omicron variant which spreads like powder trail changes?

Recently two scientific studies, one British and the other Danish, have shown that the contagion of the variant Omicron was particularly high, which confirms the infectiologist Jean-Paul Stahl of the Grenoble CHU: "Omicron is five to six times morecontagious as the Delta variant ”.But would the wearing the outdoor mask therefore more justified than during the previous waves?

No, answer epidemiologist Catherine Hill and infectiologist Jean-Paul Stahl.Admittedly, wearing an outdoor mask can be effective in crowded streets or markets when a certain distance between people cannot be respected, but "it is above all and still a way of telling the French to pay attention and that weare faced with a new wave, ”notes the specialist.To generalize the wearing of the outdoor mask also appears in the eyes of Jean-Paul Stahl as an ease solution: "It is difficult to make people understand that they must wear the mask in certain circumstances and not others"-he.

"A measurement"

Catherine Hill even dares to qualify this potential generalization of the wearing of the mask as a "measurement" and adds that "barriers have never been enough to control the epidemic".For the latter, it is necessary to emphasize "grouped screening", that is to say massive tests in schools and businesses because "when people are waiting for people to be symptomatic to test them, it is already too late.»»

Face au pourcentage de personnes non-vaccinées en réanimation – « plus de 90 % »​​​​​​ selon Jean-Paul Stahl –, ce dernier soupire : « Il commence à y avoir une vraie exaspération à l'hôpital, je n'ai jamais vu ça de toute ma carrière ». Et de conclure,« à moyen terme, la seule solution c'est la vaccination pour tous et dans l'immédiat, il faut à tout prix éviter les rassemblements pour le réveillon du Nouvel an ».

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