Here we go again: Masks are once more required at all 11 city-run hospitals, a precaution as cases of COVID, flu and RSV tick upward.
Will the health “experts” never learn?
“Our priority is to protect our patients, staff and the community, a city Health + Hospitals spokesman told The Post.
The new mandate “applies to clinical settings such as our hospitals, community health centers and nursing homes.”
Yet research now shows convincingly that masks make “little to no difference” in curbing the spread of flu- and COVID-like illnesses.
Indeed, today, all but the most diehard maskaholics admit the pandemic mask-up requirements were worse than useless.
And the current “uptick” still leaves the city with relatively few COVID cases.
As of Thursday, the seven-day daily new-reported-case average was just 2,131 (out of a population of more than 8 million), compared to nearly 40,000 a day — 20 times as many — two years ago.
And today’s cases are far less lethal: Back in April 2020, the city lost an average 700 people a day to COVID; last week’s daily average was four.
It’s easy to understand why: Almost everyone today has some built-in protection from prior exposure to the virus and/or vaccines.
That doesn’t guarantee you won’t be infected, but for those who are it significantly lessens the severity of symptoms.
Plus, medicines, like nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid) and remdesivir (Veklury), are now available to fight the disease.
Remember, too: Today’s variants are themselves less lethal; the more deadly ones die out with their hosts before spreading.
True, hospitals are filled with patients who may be at greater individual risk, and masking might well be appropriate in certain cases.
But it’s folly to think a broad masking mandate will make much of difference, given the findings that show essentially the opposite.
Doctors should be given wide discretion, and remember — above all else — to keep their bottom-line oath: do no harm.