Kiddo and I went to the pediatrician’s office for flu shots today, and every single person working in the office was maskless until they came within +/- 6 ft of us. Receptionist, insurance clerk, nurse, even the doc herself when she popped her head in the door of the exam room to say hi while the nurse jabbed us. I’m gobsmacked.
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Not cool. We require masks in the car when we come to work, and stay masked until you are in your car going home. (Exception made for eating lunch.) We do have some folks who take any excuse to pull them off, but not many, and not if thee are patients in the area. I do not understand the struggles with masks, esp among medical personel. It makes no sense.
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That makes a bit more sense, then. Smashmouth and State Fair seem about right.
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I went to doc yesterday. All staff masked. Checkin outside with staff member behind plexiglass. Wait in my car. Nurse calls my cell and asks me all the questions about my visit. A masked and gloved staff member opened every door for me on the way in and out. Nurse who took my temp and blood pressure masked, gowned, gloved. Doctor masked, gowned, gloved, and face shielded.
I had to go to a neighboring clinic for chest xray. Same check in procedure. Masked, gloved, gowned, and goggled tech opened every door.
By the time I was done I had been within 6 ft of a nurse, a staff member, the doc, the xray tech. I had touched only the exam table and xray board. That’s it.
One more edit: all patients with symptoms were routed one way through the buildings and all routine care patients had a different path.
You might need a new pediatrician.
Edited spelling and that I was within 6ft of doctor
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Here in KY, there were like 130 school systems that remained online, and about 36 that went to in-person back August. I think a lot of them shifted back to online classes very soon after.
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Sadly, I think you are right, but frankly, I’m not all that confident that this practice is an outlier here. I’m in the deep red Deep South, and the word-of-mouth reports of medical practices that don’t mask are rampant. Hell, a relative going through chemotherapy told me today that mask enforcement at the cancer clinic was markedly reduced at her latest appointment this week.
I will call around to other pediatrician practices to see if I can get honest info about their infection control measures, though.
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That is awful. Not that this is the first time I’ve heard of medical professionals not taking proper precautions. I really think they would know better but bias is such a powerful thing.
My kid’s pediatrician is with the same clinic, so I have high confidence there will be appropriate precautions when she goes in for her flu shot and well check soon. We benefit from being in one of the most liberal counties in Texas.
Edits for typos. I think I need to sleep soon 
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I have a friend who works at the same hospital as myself (very blue county, red state), in the allergy clinic. The director there is Trumpian, makes fun of the mask situation, downplays the abuse they get for trying to get patients to wear masks. Says they “need to get laid”.
Female director, btw, if you’re imagining Mad Men. There are no good options really. If I were forced to go someplace like that, though, I would spring for a good N95 mask to wear. Cloth masks protect us a little, but they are more to protect other people from us. I would opt for some filtration when dealing with the idiots.
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Oh FFS, seriously? Like, he could not publish the book in time if he got this one excerpt copied and distributed?
Everyone will now be mad at him. The Trumpista for coming out now, trying to hurt their god-emperor’s ascension above democracy by using a final vote for the reason of personal profit by selling a book just in time before the election, everyone else for not coming forward earlier for for the reason of personal profit by selling a book just in time before the election.
What a shitshow.
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Well, and the other reason, too. Trump lies a lot, so when Trump says in February that the disease is really bad, but tells the public it isn’t, he thinks Trump is lying to HIM.
It takes him another whole month to come to the conclusion that the disease is bad himself, and by that time, “everyone knows” so… why bother? 
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We get lumped in with other backward states, and we do have far more than a sane share of backward, but I am thankful we have had Beshear throughout this. His response hasn’t been perfect, but to call his last few months ‘embattled’ would be a gross understatement.
Flags at half-staff for a thousand deaths here.
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Turns out Covid will cause a secondary spike in undiagnosed and therefore untreated cancer. We need to start getting these people and those with heart disease symptoms to go back to hospitals. 50% drop in cancer diagnosis! That means that half the people with cancer do not know they have it now and are greatly more likely to die from it! 70,000 people per month with undiagnosed cancer in the US alone! This could easily end up killing more people than the direct effect. Any oncologists have some insight into this?
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Good. Everyone else join suit please.
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Early in the summer the Home Depot near me limited visitors and set up a line outside. They situated big tents so that people would be out of the sun, set at various distances down the line. I had a bitter laugh sitting in my car at the pharmacy parking lot, watching people crowd under the tents, the distances between them completely empty.
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People have been pushed in the opposite direction for months. Every day the news is full of reports about overwhelmed healthcare systems/workers, new discoveries about COVID-19, and conflicting opinions within the medical community. All of my relatives are avoiding hospitals unless they have a critical need or reason to be there. They’re putting off screenings until next year - hoping that the pandemic will be under control (or that there will be a better understanding of coronavirus) at that point.
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This would make distribution fun. -94 deg F? Nope, no can do. You get your supply, give as much as you can in 24 hours and trash the rest? What a maroon…
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