According to them, the government’s incentives for the population to wear the mask on public transport have “very limited effectiveness”.
It is a callin front of [la] gravity [de la situation] and its challenges». In a column published Wednesday, December 7 by The Parisian twelve patient associations ask the government to reimpose the wearing of the mask “in crowded spaces” such as public transport, in pharmacies or even “in crowded stores in December».
The tribune points the finger at the “ninth wave of covidthe early onset of the flu, and the intense circulation of bronchiolitis». “The risks are very clear: they concern not only the most fragile, but also our hospital system.», adds patient associations in The Parisian. “Such a situation would be dramatic and must absolutely be prevented. All the means that can contribute to this must be used simultaneouslythey support.
“Wearing a mask”, a means of struggle
For these associations, the compulsory mask in certain places therefore becomes necessary again, in the face of the “very limited effectiveness” of the “different callsto wear the mask. “It must also contribute to the solidarity protection of the most vulnerable, by allowing them to escape the risks of contracting the virus, and sometimes of dying from it.», are still launching the associations.
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The forum also points to the slow campaign of vaccine reminders. “It now seems too late for vaccination alone to contain a situation that is deteriorating day by day”she says.
Also in question, the rise of the sub-variant of Omicron BQ.1.1, on the way to becoming the majority in France and against which monoclonal antibodies – treatment in particular used with the immunocompromised and the elderly – are ineffective. Which, according to the signatory associations, “puts 300,000 severely immunocompromised patients at unprecedented risk.”
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For its part, the government seems to be maintaining its guideline: encourage rather than constrain. At the microphone of RTL, Wednesday, December 7, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne once again said she was unfavorable to the return of the wearing of the compulsory mask. “Everyone has to be responsible», she said then. The Minister of Health François Braun for his part assured on Sunday December 4 that his arm “No [tremblerait] not if he [fallait] decide the obligation” wearing a mask in transport, without giving a threshold from which he would do so.
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