by Kerry Dougherty
A friend of mine went to the dermatologist yesterday. The medical office was in the Sentara Leigh medical complex in Norfolk and she was required to wear a face diaper.
Hey, there were a total of 5 cases of covid yesterday in Norfolk. That’s 2 cases for every 100,000 residents. There may have been more cases of TB. Of leprosy. But you can’t be too careful, am I right?
Of course if my pal had waited one more day to see the skin doctor she could have bared her pretty face. In a joint announcement from the region’s megalith health companies: Sentara, Bon Secours, Chesapeake Regional, Riverside and CHKD declared that beginning today face masks were no longer required in their facilities.
It’s about time.
“While we continue to evolve our COVID-19 policies, our priority remains the safety of our team members, patients, and community,” the joint release said. “Masks will continue to be an important tool, along with vaccinations, to keep people healthy and safe. Masks will still be available to patients and visitors who enter our facilities. Additionally, our health care colleagues can still wear a mask if they choose to do so.”
Presumably, the person writing this knows that the masks commonly worn by most people do nothing to stop the spread of infection and that vaccinations don’t prevent infection or transmission. Yet they keep repeating the lines. So much science in a single press release!
Frankly, I had no idea any medical facilities were still requiring masks. I have been blessed with good health and was able to simply avoid any doctor who required patients to participate in pandemic theater after the statewide mandate was lifted two years ago. When I mentioned on the radio once that I went to an urgent care center that didn’t require masks I was bombarded with emails from listeners begging me to name it.
People want to breathe when they wait endlessly to see a physician. Who knew?
The sad thing is, not only did the pandemic shatter our faith in national health agencies such as the CDC but many lost faith in their own practitioners who refused to acknowledge that masks offered little or no protection from the virus that everyone will catch.
After the loss of learning for kids, this loss of faith in doctors may be one of the greatest unintended consequences of the misguided — not to mention unconstitutional — mandates of the past three years.
Still, common sense is finally returning.
One magic mask mandate at a time.
Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.
