Patients don’t need to ask doctors to wash their hands, or wear gloves, or sterilize their equipment. Why should patients need to demand their doctors take adequate precautions like wearing a mask against an widespread airborne virus that causes death and chronic illness?

Healthcare workers don’t decide whether to wear gloves or sterilize equipment based on how many people are hospitalized. They just do it because it protects patients, and every patient has the right to get healthcare without becoming more sick. It should be the same with masks.