Covid, flu… Let’s demand the wearing of masks in all hospitals – L’Express

It is inconceivable that the end of the state of emergency would have put an end to all preventive measures against Covid and other airborne diseases, everywhere, including places of care whose attendance exposes them to an unacceptable risk of contamination. . Are we waiting for a crisis situation to avoid contaminating patients with nosocomial infections? Should we see mobile morgues again at the Rungis market, so that the government makes masks compulsory in health establishments? The dead look at us, and it is not doing them justice to avert our eyes. Why have we collectively learned no lessons from the pandemic, maintaining unsuitable practices, when the prevention of Covid transmission in hospitals had also reduced by more than half the incidence of other viruses? The absence of evolution here is a regression which leads to accepting ever more tragedies and loss of opportunities; and to justify it, a sort of worrying medievalism is taking hold in the medical world.

It is difficult to explain otherwise that the protocol in hospitals, almost four years after the start of the pandemic, still does not follow the state of the art on preventive measures adapted to the transmission of infectious diseases in the air. Today these pathogens circulate freely in hospitals even though we have the tools to prevent it, and worrying research on the consequences, for everyone, of Covid infection is increasing. The posters displayed by certain places of care recommend in the best case the surgical mask if symptoms, whereas it is not the one adapted for an infectious disease which is transmitted in the air (even less when worn unilaterally), and that at least half of contagions are caused by asymptomatic carriers. We only insist on hand washing, almost useless for these pathogens, to give the impression of taking action. We return to 2020 with advice to cough into your elbow, as if masks were not widely available, or as if coughing was the only way to exhale infectious aerosols, emitted by simple breathing.

The ridiculousness of this situation constantly rubs shoulders with tragedy: studies show thatbetween 5% and 10% nosocomial covid leads to one death, sometimes more. In France, testimonies of these avoidable tragedies are increasing. No, the virus is not seasonal, no vaccination is not sufficient (nor effective for everyone), and no, it is not acceptable that patients are forced to put themselves in danger in order to be able to receive treatment. And if covid kills, long covid can also kill, differently. It is devastating lives: it is also an emergency. Studies on the serious delayed effects of Covid, neurological and cardiovascular, are increasing. We must therefore state somewhere that the protection of the public must not depend solely on the visibility of a tsunami of immediate deaths. Doing nothing effective is very poor management, which has effectively excluded clinically vulnerable people from essential public places for almost four years.

The denial and invisibility are so strong that the absurd even surfaces in the health insurance recommendations on this subject: isolation and masks are no longer obligatory, but “contact with vulnerable people must be avoided” , institutional validation of this unacceptable discrimination. Would these people be expected to conspicuously display their vulnerability in all contexts? On the other hand, how can we avoid them in places which concentrate them by definition, places of care? Social isolation coupled with abandonment of care resulting from this situation leads to a deterioration in their health which could lead to their death. Is this the desired goal, with the objective of “controlling health spending”, and “rethinking our model social“? This is the question that some are starting to ask themselves, in the “world after”, supposed to be better than the one before.

In the United States, where citizens are organizing, demonstrating and campaigning to demand the wearing of FFP2 in healthcare settings, some hospitals have already responded favorably. In the United Kingdom, the government will have to respond to a petition on this subject. In France, hospital management, ARS and elected officials contacted do not respond. Meanwhile, the victims continue to accumulate – around 40,000 deaths in 2022 and two million people suffering from long Covid – and so do the responsibilities.

It is now obvious that clear and national rules are needed: the population is misinformed, the mask has passed in the collective imagination from a protective measure to a taboo, evocative of a reality that everyone would like to forget. It is a stigma carried by patients who are generally already chronically ill, on whom alone rests the impossible burden of protecting themselves unilaterally in an unsanitary environment. However, responsibility for the safety of these places lies with political decision-makers and health authorities: ethics and the Public Health Code cannot continue to be flouted in this way.

Let’s return to reason and rationality, and quickly: in wanting to be treated, people die, others develop disabling long-term covid, the saturated health system will collapse under the weight of the absurd decision not to prevent these infections nosocomial.

Let’s escape from denial by following science and the law: to save lives and the values ​​of our society, let’s demand the sanitation of indoor air and the compulsory wearing of masks in all healthcare establishments, everywhere, now.

Solenn Tanguy, president of the association Winslow Public Health, the College of Millions Missing France, Elisa Zeno, R&D Engineer, co-founder of the Collective School and Forgotten FamiliesThierry Amouroux, spokesperson for national union of nursing professionals SNPI, Cathie Erissy, Secretary General of theAssociation for the Promotion of the Nursing Profession APPI, Les Dévalideusesdisabled-feminist collective, Marie Valdes, PIMS Covid Association, Pauline Oustric, President Association #ApresJ20 Covid Long France, Matthieu Calafiore, General practitioner, Director of the general medicine department of Lille, Clarisse Pean, Translator, President ofASSOMAST, Odile Maurin, anti-validism activist and municipal representative of Toulouse, Corinne Depagne, pulmonologist, Christian Lehmann, general practitioner, Julie Grasset, President Association CoeurVide19, Celine Castera, nurse, #Afterj20Tom Lachaise, #AfterJ20Mylène Damamme, co-founder #AfterJ20 Covid Long France, Béatrice Blanc #AfterJ20 – Covid Long France Association, Chantal Somm, founder of Millions Missing Francemember of the College, Michaël Rochoy, general practitioner, Alexandre Monnin, Teacher-researcher, Laetitia Rebord, Peer-helper, Director of SEXPAIR, Samy Bounoua, teacher and doctoral student, University of Lille, Céline Extenso, audio description editor, disabled-feminist activist, co-founder of the collective The Dévalideuses, Béatrice Pradillon, radio columnist, Arnaud Mercier, Professor at Paris Panthéon-Assas University, ARRA, Association for the Reduction of Airborne Risks, SOS Dry Eye Syndrome Association, Hélène Poirier, doctor, Séverine Gélois, Lecturer, #AfterJ20Cristina Mas, Long Covid Pediatric Collective, Marie-Anne Panet, General practitioner, Yannick Freymann, general practitioner, Fateh Singh, president, ON-LIGHT, Alexander Samuel, teacher, doctor in molecular biology, Laure Dasinieres, journalist, Christophe Lamarre, doctor in Roubaix, Xavier Lesprit, nurse, Igor Auriant, intensive care doctor, Jonathan Favre, general practitioner, Clémentine Zill, member of Dévalideuses, Alice Ohayon, doctoral student .