France aims to provide free masks for the needy, but will people wear them?
Everyone in France is now required to wear a face mask in enclosed public spaces. President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out making masks free for all but has agreed to "help" people in need. Free or not, some people don’t want to wear them.
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“It’s not the job of French tax payers to pay for masks for everyone, all the time,” president Macron told TF1 on Tuesday, adding that people who couldn’t afford them would be “helped”.
Macron was responding to calls for masks to be made free for poorer families after Monday’s decree levied potential fines of €135 for people who failed to wear them when shopping or entering any other enclosed space open to the public.
On Wednesday the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pecresse, announced it would provide “free masks to all charities who work with the region”, and two washable masks to each of 500,000 high school students when school begins in September.
“It’s a big budget for families to have to buy masks everyday,” Pecresse told France 2 TV.
Who’s wearing them?
The compulsory wearing of masks in shops, restaurants, cafés, banks and so on was introduced after several coronavirus clusters reappeared in France, prompting concerns over a possible "second wave" in the Autumn.
Shops now carry signs making it clear you have to wear a mask to enter.
But whatever the cost, free or not, some people are not playing ball.
According to a recent survey by BVA, 85 percent of the French are in favour, 15 percent are not.
Among the 18-34 age group the number of anti-maskers is slightly higher at 22 percent.
“I don’t feel comfortable with a mask,” a thirty-something man in an indoor Paris market told RFI. “It’s tiring and complicated when you’re out for a drink.”
Many agree that wearing a mask all day isn’t exactly pleasant.
“I put up with it for the two or three hours we’re on shift, but wearing it the whole day is difficult,” said waiter Thomas Messe, as he zig-zagged between tables, tray in hand.
“Breathing in and out gives me a headache and dries your mouth. So I pull it down a bit, under the nose, to have a bit more air.”
Nathalie, manager of a cosmetics shop in Paris, welcomed having the force of the law behind her after weeks of clients saying she was "paranoid" because she insisted they wear a mask when entering her shop.
“It’s been difficult, but now it’s clear,” she told RFI. “I just tell them to put on a mask and if the person refuses I don’t let them in.
“I think it’s altogether normal to wear one. We have to respect the rules until the situation improves.”
“I’m not the police”
Other shop owners are finding it more complicated.
Eric Demergian runs a shoe repair shop in Vanves, south of Paris. He’s posted a bright red “masks obligatory” sign on his shop front and another on the plexi-glass cover behind which he spends his day mending shoes.
“I wear a mask to greet customers, to set an example,” he said. “But when I’m working, I put it under my chin. It’s hot, uncomfortable, and you can’t communicate with people properly.”
Not all his customers wear masks when they come in, but he wouldn’t dream of refusing them entry.
“I don’t say anything. I’m not the police,” he said coolly. Demergian has been running the shop for 40 years and has a lot of regular customers. The last thing he’d want to do is vex them, especially in the current economic climate.
“I would never ask them to put on a mask. It wouldn’t be good for business,” he reckoned.
In larger shops, it’s easier to filter out the non-masked customers.
At the nearby Carrefour supermarket security guards are permanently placed at the doorway and stop anyone whose face is uncovered.
In a big DIY store in neighbouring Chatillon, a security guard stops a woman who’s wearing a simple kerchief and offers her a disposable mask instead.
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Government U-turn
It comes as little surprise that some people in France are skeptical about being obliged to wear face masks.
At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, the French government argued against mask-wearing.
“It is useless to wear masks in the street,” Macron was heard saying on 27 February while visiting a Parisian hospital.
But the government later admitted its recommendation had been guided by fears that panic buying of its limited mask supplies would lead to shortages for frontline health workers.
The turnabout undermined confidence in the government and in April an opinion poll showed that three out of four French people believed the government had lied to them.
The mask-sceptics
In the UK, Canada and U.S., some people are out protesting against being forced to wear masks in public.
Protesters in the UK's “Keep Britain Free” campaign claim that refusing to wear a mask is a political choice, not a public health one.
Le mouvement "Keep Britain Free" a organisé hier une manifestation anti-masque à Londres, alors que les masques seront obligatoires à partir du 24 juillet 2020 dans les magasins et les supermarchés en Angleterre #AFP @JustinTallis pic.twitter.com/c6BadllvYL
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) July 20, 2020
Up until Tuesday, even U.S. President Donald Trump reserved his right not to wear a mask in public. But as Covid-19 cases continued to rise he changed tack declaring mask-wearing could be seen as a sign of patriotism.
Anti-mask protesters in Martin County, FL, proudly showed their disdain for mask orders as new daily COVID-19 cases in the state hit a record high of 15,300 pic.twitter.com/bK6zKc3MTf
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 18, 2020
While a minority of French people remain opposed to wearing masks altogether, they haven't been out on the streets, preferring to vent their views on social media.
A petition claiming wearing a mask is "useless" and even "dangerous" has gathered more than 6,000 signatures.
On the Facebook group "Accrochez-vous, ça bouge" they describe mask-wearers as "sheep" blindly following the "dictatorship".
"Let's stay united! Create our own networks, put protest messages on our masks, boycott shops which oblige us to wear masks, create 'Drive-ins' without masks" reads one Facebook post.
Another insists "it's not because we don't wear masks that we lack respect, we simply think your fear isn't our problem".
In Quebec, which introduced compulsory mask-wearing in closed public spaces on 18 July, the Facebook group Groupement contre le port du masque obligatoire (against compulsory mask-wearing) has picked up followers here in France.
"Help!" reads the homepage, "my government is threatening to force me to wear a mask. We must stick together!"
"The principle argument AGAINST wearing the mask is that wearing it in an inadequate way is more dangerous than not wearing it according to WHO and INSPQ” the group proclaims.
One popular graphic on social media claims masks “reduce oxygen intake”, “increase the inhaling of toxins” and “weaken the immunity system”.
“It’s pure fantasy,” Yves Coppieters, epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University of Brussels, told AFP, showing the charges were scientifically inaccurate.
One of "the weapons"
There is still no clear evidence that wearing masks can stop the spread of coronavirus; physical distancing remains the best method.
But in areas, such as shops or on public transport, where that is not possible they remain a useful tool said Coppieters.
While he understood people were wary, masks remain necessary and efficient. “We don’t have many weapons against Covid-19. The mask is one of them,” he said.
A group of French health workers recently published an open letter requesting more widespread wearing of masks following recent studies suggesting the Covid-19 virus could also be airborne.
On Wednesday the town of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast made the wearing of masks obligatory in the busy port area and in the centre of town. It's the first town to have introduced such a measure outdoors.
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