Mask Quacks

(Sarcasm is OFF for this post.)

In the past several months, I have accompanied a friend to several medical clinics associated with NVRH (Northern Vermont Regional Hospital) in St. Johnsbury. These clinics still require the useless and harmful wearing of masks for all patients and visitors. By promoting masks, these medical clinics are, in effect, the homes of quacks, and, amazingly, the last refuge of maskers. You’d think they would be the first to follow their own mantra of “Trust The Science”, but you’d be wrong. (The mantra is wrong in any case, because science is not settled orthodoxy written on stone tablets; it is a method of determining the truth about the world and is always subject to skepticism, correction, and revision.)

But the mask insanity seems to be slowly dissipating. Here is some anecdotal evidence:

A couple of months ago, while walking through the main NVRH hospital on the way to the billing department, I noticed two unmasked employees, one a nurse in a hallway and the other a clerk seated at a computer. I thought to myself, “This is great! Masks must be optional now.” I was wrong. A few seconds later, a mask Nazi, who didn’t appear to be a nurse or a doctor, approached me and insisted several times that I must put on a mask. I left the building without complying.

Then a month ago, I spent a couple of hours in the NVRH Internal Medicine building. In the past, the clerks in the waiting room have insisted on masks, but this time they didn’t. As my friend and I were led to a conference room to meet with several doctors, I didn’t put on a mask, and was never asked to do so the entire time I was in the building. Only one of the six people in the room wore a mask. The freedom felt delicious!

Last week my friend and I visited the NVRH Physical Therapy clinic. Things were not so friendly there. While I was standing at the checkin window, the clerk asked me, “Would you mind putting on a mask?” I replied, “No, I would mind”, and left the building to avoid a confrontation.

Then a few days later, we visited the NVRH Emergency department. Because we were going to be there for hours, and I didn’t want to abandon my friend, I put on my “I DO NOT COMPLY” mask but left my nose free, so that I could breath normally. During the entire six hours we were in the ER, I was never told to “fix” my mask. While we waited in an exam room, we both removed our masks and when nurses entered, they didn’t make us put the masks back on. During this time, I also noticed that the nurses sometimes took off their masks when seated at their computers or while talking on phones. This tells me that they know masks are worthless, but they must comply with nonsense orders from above.

We are still very far from having sanity return to medical clinics. A year ago things looked entirely hopeless in these settings, but there are hopeful signs now.