I am just trying to stay alive, and it is wild to see, 5.5 years into this COVID reality, how few doctors are informing themselves about the virus as well as how few are protecting themselves & their patients by refusing to mask in medical settings.
So, as a consequence of so few doctors masking, anytime I require a medical procedure, I have to weigh the risks vs the benefits in doing so.
Very long story short, I needed an endoscopy & colonoscopy. I showed up at the endoscopy suite wearing an N95, the RN was not initially masked; however, when they left & returned to the exam room they wore a mask. As did another nurse, and as did the anesthesiologist.
I asked the RN after the endoscopy was over, please put my mask back on my face.
We all go to the OR, every last one of us masked and waiting on my gastroenterologist to arrive, and when he did, he was unmasked and polluting the OR with his vapors has he yammered on.
“Should I wear a mask?” he asked me, cluelessly a la Mr. Fucking Magoo. I replied, “Considering I will be UNCONSCIOUS WITH MY MOUTH OPEN, yes, please, mask.”
When I woke up in the recovery room, my mask was on my face just as I asked.
I have been seeing this gastro for 10 years. Ten years ago he was super thorough, and over the past 5.5 years this aspect which I will call “Mr. Magoo,” has become more pronounced. I can only imagine how many patients he sees each day and how many times he is repeatedly exposed to COVID and other viruses, which he then exposes all his patients too—as well as his special needs son at home.
What most people don’t realize about the word “endemic” is, it doesn’t mean the virus has weakened where we can let our guards down. It just means it will be a persistent threat—and isn’t that contradictory to the Hippocratic Oath, to do no harm, yet by extension of refusing to mask, doctors are in fact, harming their patients?
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