California hospitals have brought back mask mandates in response to significant increase in Covid. While I’m glad the hospital re-instated masks… I’m also exhausted by this neverending infection merry go round we’re stuck on.

We know masks work. We know hospitals are a high risk setting where the sickest and most vulnerable people HAVE to go. We know many disabled and sick people can’t mask for various reasons. So why aren’t we keeping masks in healthcare? Why do we have to wait until floors are full of covid and people have died or become disabled before we do THE most effective thing we can do to reduce transmission? We know better than this by now - and there’s no reason masks shouldn’t remain in healthcare.

Also - why is no one talking about how huge these surges are in JULY? Clearly herd immunity isn’t working and clearly the virus isn’t seasonal. Why are people ok getting infected over and over again? Especially considering that odds of being left disabled increase with repeated infections?

It doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve learned so much in the last 4.5 years. We CAN drastically reduce transmission. We just have to choose to do it. Let’s care about the air we share - and we will all be healthier for it.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/12/county-increases-testing-ucsd-health-workers-return-to-masking-as-covid-surges/

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness

California hospital return to masking as COVID surges

UC San Diego Health became the first major medical provider to reinstate masking requirements for employees as the county added free coronavirus testing Thursday, responding to a summer COVID-19 su…

The Mercury News
What scares me about a July surge is that all diseases have a big seasonal surge in the winter, because every year, everyone and their mother gets on an airplane and carries their flus and their pox and their colds all the way across the country to infect their loved ones, in celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Because you couldn't live with your family, oh no, you have to fly 600 miles to reach them, but bygosh you'll do it because family's important except when it isn't for the entire rest of the year.

So you get a rise in influenza, the common cold, etc, and any coronavirus that's going around. But nobody does that in July. How powerful is this covid variety, that it can spread with so few carriers currently?