because the “you’re at the table” rule makes sense, according to infectious disease specialist Jean-Paul Stahl

A Christmas different from the others. On Thursday 3 December, Prime Minister Jean Castex expressed in his speech his desire to see Christmas and New Year meals limited to a maximum of six people, not counting children. In an Odero poll released on Wednesday, nearly a quarter of French people (23%) announced they would not comply with this limitation even if it became mandatory. If 38% of respondents are against this measure, Jean-Paul Stahl, an infectious disease specialist at the Grenoble hospital, explains why he believes in the usefulness of this measure.

– What do you think are the merits of this recommendation?

The logic is to avoid eating meals for thirty people. The more people gather in an enclosed area, the greater the chances of transmissions. We know that 60% of cases of contamination happen during a meal – both private and in a restaurant – because it’s a time when you don’t have masks. After that, if you are lucky that among the thirty guests there is no carrier of the virus, there will be no contamination, it is logical. But the number of people around the table increases the risks. In short, it’s just a statistical problem.

– Knowing that in the six people the children are not understood and that they can be asymptomatic carriers, do you think this could be a problem?

Children can be asymptomatic carriers but transmission to child / adult is not frequent, it is adults who infect children. This is what we see in French pediatric studies but also in the US, so I don’t think children are a problem. Afterwards, we can’t ask people to separate the children, we have to be realistic.

– Speaking of the principle of reality, Professor Rémi Salomon mentioned a few weeks ago the possibility of letting grandparents eat in the kitchen. Do you think this is a matter of common sense?

It is unrealistic, nobody will. Either we consider that the elderly are too frail, in which case these people stay at home as a precaution, or if they come to you, it is not to be in the next room. The best way to protect them is to try to keep your distance and wear a mask when you’re not eating.

– For the holidays we will be with people who do not live under the same roof as us. Doesn’t this risk increasing the transmission phenomenon of the coronavirus?

This is obviously a risk, which is why Italians and Spaniards have limited the meetings to two different focuses. There are ten people in the Germans for the holidays, which amounts to more or less the same thing. In France, six people, which represents on average two outbreaks, which limits the risks. With a few variations, all Europeans do the same: there shouldn’t be many people around the table, that’s all.

– Unlike Christmas which is celebrated with the family, the New Year mixes the family sphere with the friendly sphere. How can we imagine a limited New Year’s Eve?

Honestly, people have to have some responsibility. They must finally understand – I say finally because it makes us sick from a health point of view – that if they had listened to what we had told them in the spring, we would not be there. Nothing was heard, they celebrated, they filled the beaches and here we are. If people have not yet realized that by gathering in a confined space we inevitably produce transmission, disease and death by extension, then there is nothing we can do about it.