Mask or no mask?
The lifting by the US health authorities of the recommendation to wear a mask for people vaccinated against Covid-19 took local officials, experts and companies in the United States by surprise, causing heated debate and confusion in the process on Friday. country.
Read also: Covid-19: is the obligation to wear a mask on the beach justified?
Even in Congress, altercations erupted, some elected officials being pressured to remove their masks, despite Joe Biden's calls the day before that
those preferring to keep
it be “
treated with kindness and respect
”.
The directive, simple at first glance, did not fail to raise a tangle of questions, in a country which was for a long time the epicenter of the pandemic and where the debate around the mask had become, at the time of its generalization there is over a year old, a political issue. Because the recommendations announced Thursday by the main federal public health agency of the country (CDC) are not binding: in addition to not applying in transport and hospitals, the authorities specify that they are not valid if the mask remains "
required by federal, state, local laws and regulations
" or "
store and business guidelines
."
A situation that has left employers and local decision-makers destitute, forced to decide between scientific recommendations and the concerns of Americans still shaken by the repercussions of the virus. "
Before, the masks were important and suddenly they are no longer,
" said Ivan Matta, 47, employed in a tourism company, in New York. "
My fear is, how are you going to check that people are fully immunized or not?" I believe that there are a lot of people who will no longer use the mask even if they are not vaccinated.
And indeed, little means to verify: in the United States, a national "
health passport
" has clearly been ruled out.
Read also: Covid-19: the map of the departments where the mask on the beach is mandatory
Patchwork of rules
In New York but also in Washington, the persons in charge soberly indicated that they were going to “
study
” the new recommendations.
Symbol of this embarrassment, the First Lady Jill Biden, who had removed her mask the day before during the visit of a vaccination center (“
We feel quite naked!
”, She exclaimed), again wore the famous protection in a museum in the capital Thursday.
Elsewhere, the patchwork continues: in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, current obligations were immediately updated.
Virginia and Maryland for their part finally announced that they would comply on Saturday.
In Connecticut, the new rule will not apply until next week.
In many places, the recommendation will not ultimately change much: in Texas, the obligation to wear a mask was for example lifted in March ... including for the unvaccinated.
The question also arose for supermarkets, many of which had introduced the obligation to wear masks for all their customers.
After a day of reflection, Trader Joe's and the number one American retailer, Walmart, have each in turn announced that they are complying with the new recommendations.
On the contrary, Aldi announced to maintain the status quo.
Other companies remained hesitant: in the factories of General Motors, the mask remains the time to "
study
" the new directives.
"
The CDC's recommendations are confusing,
" complained the UFCW distribution union.
“
Essential workers are frequently exposed to individuals who are not vaccinated and refuse to wear masks.
(...) Are they supposed to become the vaccination police officers?
"
To read also: Tarn: a mayor calls for the end of the wearing of the mask outside for the vaccinated
Encourage vaccination
However, most scientists, who considered that the health recommendations had long been too cautious, applauded the new announcements.
Vaccines are effective against variants, drastically reduce the very possibility of even getting infected (and not just developing symptoms) and, in the rare cases where the disease does occur anyway, the viral load is reduced, concluded studies.
They therefore show that vaccinated people (nearly 36% of the population in the United States) do not put themselves or others in danger when they do not wear a mask.
Not to mention that the daily cases have fallen sharply at the national level.
Moreover, in a country where the supply of vaccines now exceeds demand, the authorities hope to encourage the reluctant to take the plunge.
However, some experts have expressed reservations, especially for areas where transmission rates are still high: epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers would have preferred to see this announcement linked locally to a condition of "
less than 5 cases per 100,000 people per day
".
“
Give people time to organize,
” also regretted Linsey Marr, specialist in air transmission of viruses.
