It was a matter of time before Madrid asked the Ministry of Health to remove the masks in the only spaces where they are still mandatory: in pharmacies, health centers and residences. And he has done it in the Public Health commission that meets periodically, following the guidelines set out a few days ago by Antonio Zapatero, the PP's national health officer. The debate comes when in Portugal it has stopped requiring face masks in hospitals and nursing homes.
The arguments they use come from a study carried out in a London hospital that reveals that the use of this garment "does not contribute practically anything". The results were presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases held in Denmark this week. Another work published in the Annals of Internal Medicine points out that “the time has come to deimplement policies that are not appropriate when the expected benefits of such measures are low. The time for universal mask use has passed… for now”.
The Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, indicated yesterday that he had requested Health to use the masks "in hospitals and health centers appropriately, in the situations contemplated in the pre-pandemic protocols." And out of pharmacies. Escudero argues that the pandemic is in a "control and stability scenario."
But what do professionals and public health experts say? Opinions are divided, and doubts about lifting the obligation in all circumstances.
A survey by the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine advocates removing the mask but only in areas "where patients are not cared for": 70% were in favor of the measure.
The Spanish Society of Epidemiology defends, however, the mandatory mask in hospitals because "covid, today, is an infection just like the infection of any respiratory virus disease." And it is convenient to protect the most vulnerable people.
For the epidemiologist and former director of the WHO, Daniel López Acuña, the Madrid proposal is “absurd, irresponsible, provocative and electoralist. Epidemiologically, it is important to maintain the use of the mask in health settings because that is where the risks of affected people who have contagion potential are most concentrated and where the greatest vulnerabilities of people with comorbidities or immunosuppression who can be infected are also concentrated ”.
A similar opinion is held by José Martínez Olmos, a professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health, who believes that in hospitals "it is a necessary protection to avoid contagion since they are places where there are usually immunocompromised people." In pharmacies, however, "I don't see a special problem removing it."
The Associació Catalana de Recursos Asistencials (Acra), the employers' association for nursing homes, already asked a few weeks ago to lift the veto "so that grandparents can see our faces," said its president, Cinta Pasqual.
