a Niort pharmacist angry at the sale of surgical masks in supermarkets

From the Monday, May 4, some supermarkets will be able sell masks. Reusable cloth masks, but also disposable masks. Each brand must specify the purchasing methods in its stores. But for those who have had to manage their stocks of surgical masks for weeks, the pill goes wrong. In a press release entitled “The masks fall”, several orders of health professionals are indignant.

We cannot have limited the masks for caregivers for weeks to discover that Monday the supermarket stalls will be stocked with these same masks

“We cannot have limited the masks for caregivers for weeks to discover that on Monday the supermarket stalls will be stocked with these same masks”, indignant Bernard Pénicaud, pharmacist in Niort and member of the council of the order of pharmacists in New Aquitaine. “We would have had a very wide distribution of these masks before, why not. But the masks have been rationalized. The professionals lacked protections in nursing homes, hospitals, among doctors …”

Masks must be a public health issue, it must not be a commercial issue

And even if orders have arrived, “We have the impression that the large distribution has a special treatment. Masks must be a public health issue, it must not be a commercial issue”, continues Bernard Pénicaud.

For its part, federation of trade and distribution precise in a communicated have agreed to sell these masks “under strictly supervised conditions, both in terms of price and method of distribution”. And also ensures “there are no hidden stocks” with “orders that will only be delivered very gradually”.

A price capped at 95 cents per unit

Surgical masks, the price of which will be capped at 95 euro cents per unit announced this Friday the Secretary of State to the Minister of the Economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Bernard Pénicaud welcomes this decision. But for the Niort pharmacist, this is not enough. “We need state support for fragile people, in long-term illness and precarious people. A mask is worn for four hours and then it is thrown away. For a family of four, five or six people, it is a substantial budget “.

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