Flexing mask may reduce adhesion in closed places, infectologist alert

Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Porto Velho are the first three capitals to release the use of masks in open environments. Curitiba is also studying the possibility of making the use of protective equipment against Covid-19 more flexible. The measures begin to be relaxed when the country registers the lowest rates in relation to the disease.

In an interview with CNN, the infectologist from Unicamp, Raquel Stucchi, said that the fear of specialists, faced with disenfranchisement, is that people will stop using PPE indoors or where there is no distance between people.

“I think this decision is hasty from the point of view of vaccination coverage that we have in Brazil. It has much more of a ‘pleasure’ character in the population that is tired of wearing a mask, but it can decrease this adherence to the use of the equipment in places where it is really necessary.”

For the infectologist, it is necessary to assess the circumstances. “If I’m in an open place, but at a bus stop where there are people 50 centimeters from me, and who are going to talk, they’re going to cough, then I have to wear a mask in this place, even though it’s open.” On the other hand, she adds: “If I’m walking in the park or on the boardwalk, I won’t stop to talk to anyone up close, I may be without a mask.”

Raquel Stucchi emphasizes that indoor use remains indispensable. “Any closed place, regardless of the number of people inside, I have to wear a mask and I have to sanitize my hands.”

pandemic in europe

She also gives an overview of Europe, explaining why in some countries masks were discarded before adequate vaccination coverage, which, according to her, would be around 80 to 85%.

“What is happening in Europe? We have places with low vaccination levels. In Eastern Europe, for example, adherence to vaccination, for various reasons, is still very low. And the decision to start making the additional dose in the elderly, even in Germany, in the United Kingdom, was very delayed. They are already entering the fall and winter with the greatest risk of transmission without doing the additional dose, so this adds to this explosion in case numbers. And along with that, they released the mask.”