As COVID-19 and other respiratory infections rise across the country, some major health systems are bringing back mask requirements to stop the spread of infections.
This week, Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, said it will require masking for health care staff who interact directly with patients in clinical care locations starting Jan. 2.
Patients and visitors will be “strongly encouraged” to wear a facility-issued mask. Masks will not be required for staff in hallways and common areas.
The health system in a statement said its policy is based on the percentage of patients presenting to emergency departments or outpatient clinics with symptoms of respiratory illness.
It baffles me that masks arent required in medical settings most of the time. Theyre one of the places that those that are vulnerable to infection are in close proximity to people that can be, and often are, infectious.
I hoped that the pandemic would cause a sea change in how medical facilities were run. Where not wearing a mask would eventually be seen in a similar light to the surgeons of the past taking pride in not washing their hands and in how their attire was so caked with blood that they could stand their coats unsupported. But nope! Fuck the immunocompromised I guess.
We still have the same infection control protocols to prevent spreading an illness from an infectious patient to other patients that we’ve had since before the pandemic. That includes wearing a mask (and usually gown, gloves, face shield) when in a room with an infectious patient. We’re just not wearing masks in the hallways and break rooms anymore, and it’s caused some outbreaks among staff.
One significant contributing factor to this is the ridiculous American expectation that people should work unless they can’t stand up anymore, and if you take a day off, it comes out of your vacation time or it’s possible that it could be unpaid. We incentivize people to ignore mild symptoms of illness that result in them arriving to work in the early infectious stages of illnesses. We need to change that, to encourage people to stay home even if they mostly feel well, but suspect they’re coming down with something without it eating into their already scarce PTO.