A year ago I got admitted to the hospital. After a blood test it turned out I had COVID, and despite the staff being well aware of this, most of them didn’t care to wear masks around me during my stay there. When I was sent home to recover, they called me a taxi, because during the holiday period no one else was available to come pick me up. One of the staff helped escort me to the front of the hospital where the taxi driver was waiting for me. When he saw that we were wearing masks, he asked the staff if I had COVID, and she said yes. He got very angry at them, because apparently they thought it wasn’t important enough to mention to him. They immediately scrambled to get him a mask. The fucking taxi driver was more worried about COVID than the hospital staff.

There are nastier things than COVID that you can get in a hospital.

https://www.who.int/news/item/06-05-2022-who-launches-first-ever-global-report-on-infection-prevention-and-control

The math on this is points to about 4 in every 1000 hospital admissions that end up dying of infections contracted in the hospital setting.

What works for COVID also works for many other things. Unfortunately, most of the world learned fuck all from the pandemic.

Hospital staff are jaded but that doesn’t mean they don’t care. The risk posed by covid is less than it once was due to increased immunity and reduced severity strains.

If you don’t feel safe, by all means, leave, but if the reason you are there is for something serious, perhaps it is worth staying. I assume something more minor would not require a hospital stay.

We have had cokds and flus before covid. Hospital staff wore masks before covid when appropriate, like in surgery. They still do now. Not wearing a mask 24/7/when the pandemic phase has ended and its endemic is not unusual. Its a risk benefit assessment.

Most people have had covid multiple times. On an individual basis for most people, it is low risk, like lots of other illnesses. On a population basis its still a big killer, especially for those in high risk categories.

We shoukd consider the total of risk. If we all wear masks in all social settings and distance, will that be detrimental to kids development? Will that lead to poorer perceived health outcomes due to poorer communication between medical staff and patients, or between different medical staff? What is the risk increase if they mandate masks versus not wearing them when all the doctors and nurses go on buses, go to supermarkets, go to concerts etc. Population spread when its endemic is different to super spreading events when its novel.

Update:

The one single patient had 7 different visitors, no masks, tiny room. One of them put on a mask after everyone else left. Two of them were coughing. :/

This is crazy to me. I work in a hospital and everyone in every OR is required to wear masks, scrubs/bunny suits (sterile white disposable suits), shoe covers (or have shoes specifically only for use in the ORs) and sometimes gloves if there are circumstances that require it. We’ve also had requirements for everyone who works with patients throughout the hospital to wear a mask since probably October/November.

Edit: the OR rules have been the same since I started working there almost a decade ago, not just since COVID

Hospitals only care about getting paid. The more victims, the bigger the haul.

Where is this hospital?

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