I am George

I was in a Covid pt's room this weekend and he was having trouble hearing me, so I removed my mask.

He already has Covid, we know masks don't protect the wearer and I have already received two doses of the Moderna vaccine.

What I was doing was hardly reckless.

A nurse asked me why I removed my mask and I simply said, "because I received the vaccine series already".

I asked her if she had received the two doses yet.

She had.

Next, I asked why she, a woman who is in her 30's with no comorbidities and received the second dose of the vaccine over two weeks ago, was wearing two masks and a face shield?

The nurse said because the vaccine's efficacy isn't 100%.

I said, but it is 100% against severe disease.

And so, this conversation repeated itself when I queried other HCWs.

Responding to my comment that surgical masks don't protect the wearer, one educated surgeon said, "Yeah, but I am wearing an N95."

I answered "Hmmm...so? First, N95s aren’t any better…ok, forget that stupid debate. You have had both doses of the vaccine."

So, nurses and doctors cling to these masks like charms to ward off evil spirits.

I have nothing against charms...ok, that's not true at all, but at least keep your charms hidden in your coat pocket, so your insanity is also hidden and, when the charm is in your pocket, you can rub it like a rabbit's foot or mouse.

In a one-man mission, I went around the hospital, asked HCWs about their thoughts on masks, and proselytized the data on vaccine efficacy.

HCWs pointed to exceptions, people diagnosed after receiving the vaccine or the lack of 100% efficacy.

I simply preached that we have to start believing in science again.

None knew the data on masks, of course. All thought they protected them.

None was ready to take the masks off, HCWs, who completed the vaccine series several weeks ago, like Tom Hank’s attachment to a volleyball, HCWs won’t let go of practices with, at best, poor data.

So goes this saga of US Medicine turning the clock back to the days of Theodoric of York.

For those who have received two doses of a Covid vaccine,

it is time to throw away the dead mouse.