Fabric masks, homemade?
Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, no longer “recommends” it, faced with the appearance of a variant of Covid-19.
A decree will even simply prohibit their use in public space in the coming days!
However, this Friday evening, the World Health Organization (WHO) explains that these same masks are still as effective, even against the different variants of the virus.
"The non-surgical fabric masks can be used by all people under the age of 60 who do not have particular health problems", underlined the person in charge of the management of the pandemic at the WHO, Maria Van. Kerkhove.
And the expert to specify: “We have no indication suggesting that the mode of transmission would have changed.
"
It was on the recommendation of the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) that the French government decided to change its mind.
Considering that the filtration was not optimal enough to fight against the variants of Covid-19, and in particular the British variant, the HCSP now recommended the use of surgical models or category 1 tissue.
Academy of Medicine criticizes ban
"The High Council of Public Health considers that the masks general public of category 1 which filter more than 90% of the particles are sufficient and that it is not necessary to migrate towards surgical models or FFP2, justified Thursday evening, on TF1, Olivier Véran.
The advice recommends not to use the homemade mask anymore and I do it myself.
Its capacities are not filtering enough.
"
This choice is also criticized by the National Academy of Medicine, in a statement released Friday.
This measure "lacks scientific evidence: variant or not, SARS-CoV-2 uses the same transmission routes, with the same ability to cross face masks," she wrote.
The effectiveness of
general public
masks
has never been faulted when they are correctly worn.
"
The Academy of Medicine drives the point home: "Such a change in the recommendations concerning a practice with which the entire population had succeeded in familiarizing themselves risks creating incomprehension and reviving doubts about the validity of the recommendations. official.
In other words: this change of instructions could further affect the confidence of the population in the government.
"Countries are free"
During the first confinement, when it was difficult to obtain masks, the government called for making its own masks.
He had even published, on his website, a "tutorial" to make his own mask.
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France is not the only country to have changed its rules concerning the mask.
Germany and Austria have just imposed medical masks (surgical or FFP2) in shops and transport.
To which Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO replies: “Countries are free to take the measures they deem necessary.
"