Like a return to the world before. The head of government, Jean Castex, announced it a few days ago: from this Monday, March 14, the vaccine pass is over. Ditto for the obligation to wear the mask in the last closed public places where it was still required: from now on, children will be able to remove it in classes, and in companies, adults will be able to rediscover the faces of their colleagues.
So, this Monday in France, following two years of pandemic and health restrictions, the world will be divided into two categories: those who will have the banana and an irrepressible desire to sing “Liberated, delivered” (the song in the head, it is a gift!), and those who will freak out, the mask still tightly screwed on the nose, judging that the lifting of the restrictions is too premature.
“The vaccine pass, good riddance”
For the moment, Manon “does not intend to drop the mask in shops and other closed places. But the lifting of the vaccination pass, I think it’s great. I’m 24 years old and I can’t wait to start living my youth to the full once more! An enthusiasm shared by Thierry, for whom it was “not of much use”. And by Isabelle: “The vaccination pass, good riddance, since vaccines do not block contamination anyway”.
“The vaccine pass has not shown very great effectiveness in protecting once morest transmissions, confirms Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and director of the Institute of Global Health in Geneva. On the other hand, the vaccination pass, following the health pass, had the effect of boosting vaccination coverage, and anti-Covid vaccines have demonstrated their very high effectiveness once morest serious forms, hospitalizations in critical care and deaths, specifies- he. Today, if the government judges that this pass has come to the end of its action, we can understand that it decides to lift it”.
“The lifting of the wearing of the mask is premature”
Delighted with the lifting of the vaccination pass, Isabelle is much less so when it comes to the end of the mask. “What madness to remove it from enclosed spaces! I intend to continue to wear it, but as many others will not, I will be less protected and that worries me”. For Dominique, “this measure is disconnected from the epidemiological situation, no indicator announced by the government has been reached. The mask should be maintained in the current situation of sustained viral circulation”. Moreover, Aniece, who “caught the Covid and contaminated [son] spouse and very elderly parents”, is not reassured. “I have just learned that a couple of friends are also positive in my village of 3,000 souls, and for the past few days there have been many positive cases. Let’s not let our guard down too quickly.” Pascale thus judges that “the lifting of the wearing of the mask is premature, because there are always deaths and entries into intensive care”.
In practice, “the mask is supposed to reduce the risk of transmission, so the obligation to wear it is only justified when the circulation of the virus in the community is high. Lifting the obligation to wear it must therefore be conditional on health indicators of epidemic decline, insists Antoine Flahault. If, as Olivier Véran had indicated before the Senate, it is conditioned to an incidence rate of less than 300, to less than 1,500 patients hospitalized in critical care and to an effective reproduction rate, the famous R, durably lower than 1 is reasonable. But this is ultimately not what the government intends to do, since the lifting of restrictions is set for March 14 regardless of the levels of these indicators, deplores the epidemiologist. However, our models show that we will be at an incidence rate of more than 500, and that as fewer and fewer tests are carried out, the positivity rate increases. Last Tuesday, there were 93,000 contaminations, these figures show that the circulation of the virus is high, and is even on the rise[ThelatestfiguresavailablethisSaturdayshow72443contaminationsin24hoursstagnatingWeareonnumbersbiggerthanthetopofthefifthwaveinDecemberdominatedbytheDeltavariantitishugeSotheobligationtowearthemaskisstilljustifiedEspeciallysinceonMarch14accordingtoourforecastswewillmostlikelyhaveanRgreaterthan1”[Lesdernierschiffresdisponiblescesamedi fontétatde72443contaminationen24heuresenstagnationNoussommessurdeschiffresplusimportantsquelesommetdelacinquièmevaguededécembredominéeparlevariantDeltac’esténormeDoncl’obligationdeporterlemasquesejustifieencoreD’autantquele 14 marsselonnosprévisionsonauratrèsprobablementunRsupérieurà1 »
“I will continue to wear FFP2 masks”
Figures that worry Thierry, who judges “very premature to forget the barrier gestures. As long as the virus is circulating, I will continue to wear the mask everywhere and avoid closed public places. I haven’t been infected since the start of the epidemic, it’s only now that I’m going to let my guard down. Neither is Isabella. “Immunocompromised, I intend to keep my mask on and avoid closed places that are too crowded. Result: lifting the restrictions means reconfiguring vulnerable people like me. Thank you to the government for going too fast, ”she annoys. Sabrina, also immunocompromised, shares her caution. “I will continue to wear the FFP2 mask, I fear that with the end of the compulsory mask, the contaminations will flare up”. A precaution also adopted by Nathalie: “I wear FFP2 and I will continue, and my son will also wear it at school. I am convinced that the contaminations will skyrocket”.
Especially since “in the classrooms, children are particularly poorly vaccinated, those with comorbidities find themselves at high risk of being contaminated and of developing serious forms, recalls Antoine Flahault. The mask was a means of effectively protecting these children. So all those who want to continue wearing the mask indoors have a sensible conduct, and to protect themselves individually, they have every interest in wearing FFP2 masks, especially if they are the only ones wearing them. People who want to remain vigilant will have to wear it for several more weeks, especially the most vulnerable: the unvaccinated, children with comorbidities, immunocompromised people or those in contact with them.
No doubt the government is choosing to bet on the seasonality of the virus, which should be smaller with the arrival of spring and the rise in temperatures. But “this summer brake does not completely block the virus, insists Antoine Flahault. We see it in New Zealand, which is currently experiencing a phenomenal peak in contamination when it is the heart of summer there. And here, we are still in winter.
