“Doing without a mask in transport should not change the improvement in the epidemiological situation”, estimated Wednesday May 11 on franceinfo Pascal Crepey, teacher-researcher in epidemiology and bio-statistics at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health, in Rennes. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced on Wednesday that the mask will no longer be compulsory in public transport from Monday May 16. Pascal Crepey nevertheless stresses that the lifting of this health measure must not be “considered as an obligation not to wear it anymore”. He calls to “to remain vigilant” because “unfortunately the epidemic is not over”.
franceinfo: Does the epidemiological situation seem good enough to you today for us to do without masks in transport?
Pascal Crepey: What is certain is that the epidemiological situation continues to improve, that we have a reproduction number that is well below one. And therefore a priori, doing without a mask in transport should not change the improvement in the situation. This may possibly slow down the decline, there may be infections that would not have occurred if the mask had been kept on, but this should not change the situation from an epidemiological point of view.
Have you noticed a real decline in recent days, in recent weeks?
Yes, the decline is observed. The number of positive cases continues to decline. It is slower in terms of hospital occupancy and deaths. We are still at a hundred deaths a day. So the level of circulation of the virus remains strong. This is why this end of the obligation to wear a mask must not be considered as an obligation to no longer wear it. People must eventually continue to wear the mask to reassure themselves if they need it, or if they feel at risk of developing a serious form or at risk of having been infected and potentially infecting people. It’s part of learning to live with the virus.
This apprenticeship, do you have the impression that the French have acquired it?
I think that two years of the epidemic have taught us a lot of things, even if the perception of risk is diminishing because it is true that in concrete terms we are more protected, people are widely vaccinated and the Omicron variant, when we are vaccinated, generally have mild forms, but we must keep in mind that unfortunately the epidemic is not over. When we look a little in the rest of the world, in South Africa or the United States for example, other variants have emerged and are in the process of taking over and changing the nature of the epidemic curves. They are making this epidemic start to rise again. And it is not at all certain that the summer will be as quiet as we had hoped. So, we must remain vigilant.