At 83, Michel still leaves his home with his mask on his face: “It’s to protect me as I’m a person at risk. I’m over 80 already and I’m on treatment.” Since the mask is no longer mandatory indoors after the lifting of health restrictions linked to Covid-19, Michel avoids certain places.“There are places I haven’t gone back to, like the cinema or the theatre.
“I only go to restaurants where there is sufficient air volume and no crowding.”
Michael, 83 years oldat franceinfo
Michel also avoids public transport, where the mask remains mandatory but where some travelers wear it badly, under the nose, or even completely under the chin: “I avoid the metro, I take the bus at off-peak hours, I avoid peak periods when I need to take public transport.” With the rebound of the epidemic, the question of wearing a mask arises again. On Tuesday, the WHO estimated that several European countries, including France, have raised too much “brutally” their anti-Covid measures.
Lamia, 54, suffers from thyroid and also prefers to remain masked. “He is always with us, this mask and protects us because I am afraid”, she confides. Lamia would like people to pay more attention to her. Amadi has hypertension problems. He is also anxious, but does not dare to ask others to wear the mask, to protect him.
“You find yourself facing people who don’t wear it, you’re not going to do the police anyway, explain to them that they have to put it on”.
Amadi, suffering from hypertensionat franceinfo
This feeling of insecurity is shared by many people at risk of having a serious form of Covid-19, notes Yvanie Caillé, founder of Renaloo, an association of patients with renal insufficiency: “They often find themselves almost the only people to wear the mask. They don’t necessarily feel safe.”
In the workplace, this difference is even more problematic, adds Yvanie Caillé: “It has led a number of them, moreover, to ask to return to total telework, or even partial unemployment, since they still have this possibility today to protect themselves. And then, what some say also, it is that they are a little disappointed by certain colleagues who, although they know their fragile state of health, do not necessarily pay attention and remain unmasked in the presence of these immunocompromised colleagues.
#YesToMask
To protect yourself, but also to protect others #solidarity #immunocompromised https://t.co/ioowIRJMeY—Renaloo (@Renaloo) March 14, 2022
The association has launched a communication campaign to encourage everyone to wear the mask in solidarity with vulnerable people. The message: “Protect yourself, protect us”.