“It all starts with barrier gestures.” A guest of BFMTV-RMC this Friday morning, Patrick Pelloux, president of the Association of Emergency Physicians of France, spoke out in favor of reinstating the ban on the use of masks on public transport, as Covid-19 cases go on the rise
When addressing the issue of “promiscuity” in transport, the emergency doctor recalled the risks of contamination in these spaces. When “someone who coughs on the train, on the plane, on the train, contaminates the entire wagon”, he stressed.
The Government calls for ‘responsibility’
For the moment, the government has not settled the issue. If the Minister of Health, François Braun, assured that the issue of the obligation to wear the mask in public transport “it is always on the table”, he especially asks for the “responsibility” of the French.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had raised the issue in the Assembly, issuing a “solemn appeal”. “Let’s respect the barrier gestures, let’s wear the mask as soon as we are with fragile people or in crowded areas such as public transport. They are small gestures that save lives ”, she had declared on the podium.
Indications, and not obligations, that do not change the situation, for Patrick Pelloux. “It is not making a great spell saying ‘it would be good if you put the mask back in the transport’ that they are going to put on. It does not work,” he denounced. “The French people are obedient. But when you say it well, you have to do it without obligation, nobody does it,” he said.
“Something formalized”, “only for winter”
According to the caretaker, “something formalized” is needed from the government. “We have to put back, very temporarily, probably just for the winter,” the mask in the transport, urged the caretaker.
Does this sharp increase in Covid-19 cases threaten the holidays? “It is useless to scare France further”, replies the emergency doctor, for whom, however, “it is worth getting tested if there are people with chronic diseases around the table and getting vaccinated again if there are people at risk”. “To protect yourself is to protect the other,” she recalls.
Source: BFM TV
