Yesterday, May 11, 2023, was the final day of the Covid-19 public health emergency (PHE) in the United States. The WHO also recently declared the emergency phase of the pandemic to be over. To understand what that means in terms of data tracking and other areas of interest, check out Dr. Katelyn Jetelina’s newsletter from
I'd like to hear your thoughts on masks optional in hospitals, especially as your medical center initially had a policy that a patient could NOT ask a provider to mask. Here is a quote from Ellie Murray of BU: "This seems a really strange decision from a public health perspective. We put the masks on to protect from the respiratory disease, and we did that because we saw that they were useful. Now that the emergency is ending, we should be transitioning into masks being a standard part of healthcare, because of the levels of respiratory viruses that we’re seeing. And the people who are most likely to have the severe outcomes from COVID are those people who are already facing other health problems, which is who is in our hospitals. And our healthcare workers are at a really high risk of exposure because they’re around people who are sick all the time. The removal of masks in healthcare settings is mind-boggling. It’s kind of in the same vein as if people were like, “Yeah, well, HIV is not new anymore, so people handling blood or contaminated material don’t need to wear gloves in a healthcare setting.” I don’t think anybody would be comfortable with that."
What Jan said, Doc. Is there not a larger percentage of communicably diseased persons, and immunocompromised persons in a health care facility than in, say, a restaurant? Why did the government abandoned safety protocols in those settings? Do you know the logic behind this?
A friend was told that masks only required if you’re sick: my 4 year old granddaughter has COVID right now— zero symptoms. The rest of the family is ill: we know about asymptomatic spread and hospitalized patients are ill by definition.
I saw a sweet photo of a pediatric pulmonary doctor from Boston Medical Center hugging her little coughing patient and she wrote that she hasn’t been ill for 3 years and has no intention of stopping her high quality mask.
I remain pretty depressed about the state of this disease in the US. I find it despicable that the CDC has come out with clean air standards the day after the emergency is declared over. My husband currently has Covid for the first time that we know of, and I am trying so hard to stay well for him and me. But I have no clue what to do once the acute phase is past - it seems like we just wait for the heart attack or stroke now? Or maybe cancer or Parkinson’s in a few years? Doctors don’t want to seem to try anything preventative for this disease and the diseases that come after. If anyone reading this has suggestions, I would love to hear them.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on masks optional in hospitals, especially as your medical center initially had a policy that a patient could NOT ask a provider to mask. Here is a quote from Ellie Murray of BU: "This seems a really strange decision from a public health perspective. We put the masks on to protect from the respiratory disease, and we did that because we saw that they were useful. Now that the emergency is ending, we should be transitioning into masks being a standard part of healthcare, because of the levels of respiratory viruses that we’re seeing. And the people who are most likely to have the severe outcomes from COVID are those people who are already facing other health problems, which is who is in our hospitals. And our healthcare workers are at a really high risk of exposure because they’re around people who are sick all the time. The removal of masks in healthcare settings is mind-boggling. It’s kind of in the same vein as if people were like, “Yeah, well, HIV is not new anymore, so people handling blood or contaminated material don’t need to wear gloves in a healthcare setting.” I don’t think anybody would be comfortable with that."
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/covid-19-is-no-longer-an-official-emergency/
What Jan said, Doc. Is there not a larger percentage of communicably diseased persons, and immunocompromised persons in a health care facility than in, say, a restaurant? Why did the government abandoned safety protocols in those settings? Do you know the logic behind this?
A friend was told that masks only required if you’re sick: my 4 year old granddaughter has COVID right now— zero symptoms. The rest of the family is ill: we know about asymptomatic spread and hospitalized patients are ill by definition.
I saw a sweet photo of a pediatric pulmonary doctor from Boston Medical Center hugging her little coughing patient and she wrote that she hasn’t been ill for 3 years and has no intention of stopping her high quality mask.
I remain pretty depressed about the state of this disease in the US. I find it despicable that the CDC has come out with clean air standards the day after the emergency is declared over. My husband currently has Covid for the first time that we know of, and I am trying so hard to stay well for him and me. But I have no clue what to do once the acute phase is past - it seems like we just wait for the heart attack or stroke now? Or maybe cancer or Parkinson’s in a few years? Doctors don’t want to seem to try anything preventative for this disease and the diseases that come after. If anyone reading this has suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Jeremy, do you have a preferred email address for subscribers? Had a question I wanted to run past you. Thanks