During the spring of 1867, Joseph Lister published a series of articles in The Lancet outlining medical sterilization protocols that became the foundation of contemporary antiseptic surgical practice. Many doctors resisted Lister’s findings at first, perhaps because to accept them would require the admission that their squalid hygiene was responsible for killing many patients. Now that we know masks impede the spread of COVID, to return to unmasked medical settings while the virus enters its endemic phase is tantamount to medical malpractice. Thousands of patients entering healthcare settings with non life-threatening conditions will become victims of healthcare acquired COVID infections (HAIs).
Of course hospitals don’t want to take responsibility for HAIs. Just like the Victorian doctors who didn’t want to be inconvenienced by the additional steps sterilization requires, modern healthcare providers don’t like to accept that they’re putting their own comfort and convenience over the safety of their patients. Americans are now risking a disability-causing virus to receive preventative care. Many, like myself, will tough it out at home rather than go to a hospital. Kick this can down the road a decade or so and our country’s life expectancy will plummet. COVID must be added to the list of conditions tracked in the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program conducted by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and measured by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Masks must continue to be worn in healthcare settings. Otherwise, we simply repeat a senseless and abhorrent cycle in our history.
Anne James
Concord