moving to the university hospital of Montpellier last Tuesday, the Prime minister, Jean Castex, announced that the company wanted to ” extend the more possible the obligation of wearing a mask in public spaces “, while the number of infections is rising again. For members of The France insubordinate, to the origin of a project of law on the free use of the mask, the question is one of burning topicality. Bastien Lachaud, deputy for the 6th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis, calls for the responsibility of the State.
The Point : The widespread use of wearing a mask in the street, particularly in the Île-de-France, makes it even more urgent his is free ?
Bastien Lachaud : of course, the more the mask is mandatory, more free becomes an issue. As we have seen, the press has referred to, the cost of the mask is between 200 and 300 euros for a family with two children, and that the mask was not yet mandatory on the public highway. This generalization will further increase the use of the mask. The budgets for families will be increased further. Wearing a mask is useful and necessary to combat the epidemic, but we can’t do any benefit on the finances of the French. If we are in a war as wanted by the president of the Republic, it is up to the State to take in charge the cost of this war which involves paying for the masks. In the end, if we look more closely, the price of the masks represents, compared to the budget of the State, practically nothing compared to the hundreds of billions that we have lost due to the confinement and in the absence of masks.
Read also Demorand – Covid-19, this second wave that makes us crazy
last July, Emmanuel Macron, stated that “The State – and the French taxpayer – not for the purpose of paying of the masks […] for everyone, all the time” the emphasis on a “social policy” at the free-for-all. The new government can he really go back ?
When we had said, at the end of the confinement, that the mask should be made compulsory in the public spaces and free, the minister of Health, Olivier Véran, we had explained that there was nothing to put on the mask in public space or outside. The minister was terminated two months later. Yes, I think that the government can and should come back on this sentence of the president of the Republic. If we go to the end of this logic, the mask is an essential tool for the prevention of and the fight against the virus. Is this is not on the national solidarity to support the costs of the health of the French ? Person today, in this country, are not going to say that he must return on the social security and free health care. The masks, this is the same thing ! This is significantly less expensive to pay masks to pay months and months of intensive care to someone who is going to be a victim of Covid. It must be remembered that prevention is much less expensive than treatment. Wearing a mask and being free of charge cost much less than all the consequences of not wearing a mask.
This health policy that you call your wishes at a cost to the public finances. Your bill for the free masks is the creation of an “additional fee” to the general tax Code. Still a tax !
First, the reality is that the devices to provide masks to people who need it, through lack of means, do not work. Secondly, 300 euros for a family, it is huge. This affects millions and millions of households in France, not only the households in the RSA. The volume of the French in need is considerable. We need to take collective charge of the fight against the Covid-19. If one only takes the budget issue, do you realize that account for 10 percentage points of GDP less in terms of billions lost in comparison to a few hundred million is dedicated to the free masks ? It is not necessary to look at the expense of immediate, but that it will induce to the result. If there is a second wave, and the obligation of a new containment, is it because we would not have been able to put in place the free ? That is what is going to cost more, free masks or a second containment ?
The port of the mask is also a gesture citizen. You are the mp of Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the territories most affected by the virus. The free for all will it have an impact on the compliance of actions health ?
In Seine-Saint-Denis, the containment blew up the poverty rate. People, today, are struggling to feed their families, and their children. With the additional cost of the mask, we will ask them to choose between protecting themselves or feed their children. It is an impossible choice for parents, and what we denounce. Not because it would be bad citizens, but because they simply don’t have the money to buy it.
also Read Paris : the difficult beginnings of the mask mandatory in the street
