I actually am working in another, meatier post on the topic of racism but something just happened and I think it is worth sharing.

I see patients in one of my two offices five days a week. Probably 30 to 50 people on average. One of those offices is with an agency which must follow the mandatory mask mandate put in place in my state for healthcare facilities. This literally means it is the law everyone in the facility, patient or staff, must wear a mask at all times.

Do people follow this rule? For the most part yes but not willingly and not right away. Everyday I put my mask on in my car before grabbing my briefcase and my coffee cup to head into the building. As my hands are full at the point of entry, in my car is the only opportunity I will have to put my mask on. This practice does mean I will be wearing my mask where I technically do not have to (the parking lot and in my car) but I see this as a small price to pay to follow what I see as a law which is actually saving lives.

Do all staff members follow suit?

No.

Every day I walk in the staff entrance behind some other staff member (many are nurses or medical doctors due to the nature of the facility I work in) and they are not wearing a mask. I used to say something but over the years of the pandemic I stopped. You cannot change the tide by yelling at the ocean.

I also pass by the main entrance several times each day and see the vast majority of patients walking into the building are not wearing masks. We have a person stationed at the desk by the entrance tasked with reminding people of the mask mandate. Most people grab a mask and say nothing but some folks get pretty upset.

“I thought covid was over!” Some yell while others ask with sincerity in their voices, “why does healthcare have to be so political?”

I shake my head in disbelief at the ridiculousness of humanity and usually say nothing. I have intervened when someone got overly irate (nobody is rude to my staff) only by politely telling them they could either agree to wear the mask or they could agree to seek their healthcare somewhere else. This usually has the desired effect.

Which brings me to today.

I get an alert most times when a patient is checking in. This is helpful because I can take a minute to scan the patient’s chart or my notes to remind myself what it was we spoke about last session. I’m not old, as I said I have a lot of patients. Today right at the top of the chart is a note which stated a medical appointment had to be rescheduled due to the patient testing positive for covid. The test result and the note were dated today.

For those not seeing my point yet let me spell it out.

A patient who has a contagious disease which has killed millions of people in the US, not to mention the world, thought enough to call and reschedule one appointment due to this test but had no issue coming into my office.

And that ladies and gentlemen (or that one guy following my blog) is why we cannot have nice things and the covid pandemic will never actually end.

It has been a while since a patient has informed me of the tracking devises and pig parts they KNOW are in the vaccines but every day I see people coming into a medical facility without a mask on. The simple act of wearing a mask will increase the odds you don’t share whatever cooty you have with the rest of the class but because people by and large don’t care about other people these folks don’t wear masks. Of course they don’t say they aren’t wearing a mask because they don’t care about other people, they instead will state a bunch of nonsense they think are facts.

Come to think of it the reason racism is still a thing is, in part, because people don’t care about other people. Another reason is the mistaken belief equality for all would mean less for some, a concept I refer to as a Zero Sum game but I digress. That racism piece is coming soon I promise.

For now please get vaccinated, it is not only the safest way to protect you and those you care about from disease but it is the reason people tend to live as long as they do these days.

And please stay home if you are positive for covid for at least ten days but two weeks is still the norm accepted by the medical community.