By Vicky Byrd, MSN, RN, Chief Executive Officer, Montana Nurses Association
The Montana Nurses Association continues to be incredibly proud of the Montana nurses serving our communities during the covid pandemic. As they have done from the start, nurses are heroically serving at the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis to care for Montanans despite the severe risks to themselves and their families.
Nurses working across all health care settings and specialties are essential to combating COVID-19. Unfortunately, nearly 400 nurses in the United States have died due to COVID-19, and many others have been infected and hospitalized. Nurses and health care workers (not to mention our teachers and essential workers) are risking their lives, and the health of their own families, to serve their communities and care for their patients and students.
Covid is real and it is consuming Montana. These latest covid positive numbers are
Nov 14th = 1622
Nov 15th = 1239
Nov 16th = 943
Nov 17th = 1395
Nov 18th = 1232
Nov 19th = 1236
These numbers are appalling and will very soon overwhelm our hospitals. Some Montana hospitals are already overwhelmed.
Wearing a mask, hand hygiene, social distancing and limiting the number at gatherings are essential to prevent our local health care systems and our nation’s health care workforce from being overwhelmed. If we do not flatten the curve in the coming weeks and months, it will be more difficult than ever to meet the exploding demand for care from our incredible nursing and healthcare workforce.
MNA is asking for support from our citizens to support the mask mandate when in public and recent statewide restrictions announced on Tuesday. Additionally, MNA supports keeping schools closed and learning remotely until after the New Year (schools are closing daily), and a stay at home recommendation until the new year as it will be the only way to flatten the curve.
Please, Please, PLEASE wear a mask to protect your health and those around you. Wearing a mask is an evidence based proven method to help decrease the spread of covid. Wearing a mask does not take away your rights. It simply protects each other while we all face this public health crisis. It is no different than wearing a seatbelt and it will/does save lives. There is promising news on a vaccine, however, that will take weeks, and most likely months, for it to become widely available. Getting a FLU shot is extremely important this year if you are able to do so.
Roger Mitchell says
Ms. Byrd,
You are correct. Wearing a mask does not take away my rights. As long as it is my choice to wear a mask, then my rights are secure. When I am ordered to wear one, however, then I have lost the right to make my own decision. When I MUST obey the “mandate from on high”, then I have lost my right to decide for myself and have ceded that decision-making to someone else who may or may not have my best interests at heart.
“It simply protects each other…” This is a personal opinion. Certainly there is data available which contends that masks do not make a difference and are ineffective against a virus which is .1 microns in size, far smaller than the weave in any “normal” face covering, such as handkerchiefs or dust masks.
“It is no different than wearing a seatbelt…” Well, actually it is. If I wear a seatbelt while driving, then I am trying to protect myself against harm in case of an accident. However, my use of the seatbelt does not protect anyone else at all in any way, shape, or form. They must apply the seat belt themselves. This is not the reasoning used with face masks. Instead we are all urged to wear one in order to protect others. If wearing a seatbelt is no different than wearing a face mask, then we should all wear a seat belt to protect others, including drivers of other vehicles which we might collide with. This is simply not the case and this comparison should be abandoned.
“…it will/does save lives.” Where are the definitive studies which prove this assertion beyond a reasonable shadow of doubt? Until you can point to them, then this is mere conjecture and is a guilt-manipulative, moral argument. Masks save lives? Show me the irrefutable evidence. In fact, if this can be proven to be true, then by simply forcing everyone to wear a mask all the time, we can bring the deaths caused by viruses down to virtually nothing, an oddity rather than a regular part of life.
“Getting a FLU shot is extremely important this year if you are able to do so.” Why is it so much more important this year than in any other year? The corona virus is a cold virus, not a flu virus, which means that getting a flu shot will be ineffective against it. And besides, verifiable data shows that flu shots have varying degrees of efficacy, some with very low percentages. It is not at all certain that getting a flu shot will protect you from anything, therefore it is a crap shoot. Furthermore, to my knowledge and understanding, no one has died from the flu in the last year. They have all died from Covid. The flu has been banished, therefore your advice is unwarranted.
No lockdowns! No mask mandates! No more!