“It’s not the right time” to lift the vaccination pass and the wearing of a mask according to Michaël Rochoy, general practitioner in Outreau and co-founder of the “Stop-Postillons” collective. For him, Jean Castex’s announcements on Thursday March 3 on the reduction of measures to fight against Covid-19, “it’s electoral populism to please people”.
>> Wearing a mask, vaccination pass… What will be the new rules from March 14
The Prime Minister explained on TF1 that the vaccine pass will be suspended from Monday March 14 wherever it applies. Jean Castex also announced the end of the mandatory mask indoors, on this same date, except in transport and health facilities. However, the vaccination obligation continues to apply for caregivers. “It’s not the right time”protests Dr. Rochoy. “The vaccination pass is not a prevention to limit the infection, it is a prevention to limit the serious formshe hammers.
“What is effective in limiting indoor contamination is the mask, ventilation, aeration, the limitation of mixing by teleworking.”
Michaël Rochoy, general practitioner in Outreauat franceinfo
But for this doctor, the end of the mask at work and at school in particular, “it is electoral populism to please people. From a health point of view, it is of no interest.. Michaël Rochoy is worried: “There’s no way that removing the mask won’t have a wave coming.”
This general practitioner co-founder of the “Stop-Postillons” collective is annoyed : “People will wear the mask in transport, then go to work and take it off, share the virus between them. They will put the mask back on in transport so that they won’t contaminate strangers, then they will bring the virus back. at home, infecting the children. The children will infect the students, who will infect their own parents… This is how the epidemic has worked since the beginning.
The doctor recalls that the Omicron variant made “14,000 dead in two months”, despite the measures in force. He also indicates that questions arise regarding immunocompromised people. “They will have to wear an FFP2 mask”which raises the issue of “Confidential medical information”.
Benjamin Rossi, infectious disease specialist at the Ballanger Hospital Center in Aulnay-Sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), does not share the same opinion and believes for his part that ‘”we must lighten the measures” sanitary, as announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex at 1 p.m. on TF1. “I think we’ve moved into an endemic phase of the virus, says Benjamin Rossi. The rate of serious forms and mortality of this viral infection has been greatly reduced. This virus is here and will stay there.
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran had mentioned a threshold of 1,500 patients in intensive care to lift the compulsory wearing of the mask, while they are currently 2,329. The infectious disease specialist Benjamin Rossi nevertheless believes that it is not too early to ease the measures: “it’s true that Covid patients can stay in intensive care for a very long time, but we still have very few new admissionsaccording to him. In our service, the Covid unit has melted away like a trickle”.
This opinion is shared by the Vice-President of the French Society of Pediatrics. “It’s completely logical and coherent”reacts Thursday on franceinfo Robert Cohen, while from March 14, wearing a mask will no longer be compulsory in schools. “For two weeks now, all the indices have been pointing towards improvement, without exception: the incidence rate, the resuscitation rate, the hospitalization rate”, justifies the doctor.
“For us pediatricians, it was essential”to remove the mask, explains the doctor, “because there is a lot of discomfort, especially for the youngest who are learning to read and write, wearing a mask was still extremely inconvenient”. Robert Cohen adds that “Children have enough to worry about today that dropping the mask will improve their learning and their psychological health.”