Goodbye masks from 15 June? What Pregliasco, Lopalco, Ciccozzi say

Goodbye masks from next June 15th? It would seem so, at least according to what was declared today by the Undersecretary of Health Andrea Costa. Speaking on ‘Radio too’ on Rai Radio1, the undersecretary explained how, perhaps as early as next week, “I believe we will remove the latest restrictive measures such as indoor masks. The government’s objective – he then remarked – it has always been to create the conditions for coexistence with the virus “. But what do the experts say? Responsible for Adnkronos Salute are Pregliasco, Lopalco, Ciccozzi, Gismondo and Clementi. Read also “I would keep the mask on means of transport”, explains the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, a professor at the State University of Milan who reaffirms his position to Adnkronos Salute in view of the deadline. Beyond the obligation, the expert repeats, in case of close contacts and gatherings “the mask remains useful” as a defense tool for oneself and for others, especially thinking of fragile people. “However, I realize that in this favorable epidemiological moment it is difficult to accept it”, adds the health director of Irccs Galeazzi, who notes “a generalized perception of impatience. I see many – he says – who proudly, when you put on a mask, look at you evil, contemptuous of dangers “. But the ‘stigma’ towards the wearer, insists Pregliasco, does not change the fact that “the usefulness of the mask remains”. “It is time to move from the obligation to wear the mask to the conscious choice of protecting oneself and others in the most at-risk situations, such as public transport “, underlines the epidemiologist Pier Luigi Lopalco, professor of Hygiene at the University of Salento, to Adnkronos Health. “I believe that today more than ever before – he continues – citizen involvement is needed for a constant adaptation of behavior to risk levels. We must move from the prescribing phase to the conscious choice of behaviors appropriate to the personal risk of contracting the infection and spread it in the community to which they belong. I mean that citizens must be informed about the level of viral circulation in order to be able to adapt their behavior accordingly “. “When the mask will no longer be mandatory on public transport – he adds – those who believe they are at personal risk of infection or do not want to become a carrier who could put a loved one at risk who may be at risk of serious illness, in active phase of viral circulation he will take care to wear a Ffp2 mask for his own safety “. After June 15” I would keep the obligation to wear a mask on local public transport, trains and even on airplanes. We are still at a fluctuating positivity rate around 10%, often above. I would say wait “. So instead at Adnkronos Health Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Bio-Medico Campus in Rome. “I think we should slowly return to a normal life, therefore without a mask” obligation. A line that should apply “also to means of transport” according to Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of clinical microbiology, virology and bio-emergency diagnostics at the Sacco hospital in Milan. “No more obligations”, says the expert to Adnkronos Salute in view of the deadline. “I would leave it more to free choice”, reiterates Gismondo. “There are people who psychologically feel even more protected by wearing it – he observes – while there are people who can no longer bear it, so I would not continue with an obligation”. “Let’s drop the obligation but not the habit of using masks “, the position of the virologist Massimo Clementi. “No to the obligation”, he then reiterates to Adnkronos Salute. Even on public transport, but on one condition: “That any free all is lived with responsibility and respect and not transformed on the contrary into an obligation not to wear a mask”. This is the invitation of the director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Virology of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, who has a personal vision on the fate of this anti-contagion protection. “I will always live with masks in my pocket, which you can put on or take off as needed,” he explained. The mask, Clementi always remembers, “is a filter and there may be contexts in which, beyond the coronavirus itself, it can be useful in particular seasons of the year”. Perhaps not in the height of summer, “but from autumn” the expert advice is to “keep it at hand”.