Available on the CDC HICPAC public meeting youtube: CDC HICPAC Meeting November 2 2023 – YOUTUBE LIVESTREAM (public comments start around 6:13:00)
Why is it that I have to continually ask about safety precautions when I need healthcare? I’m continually hit with the canned answer from healthcare providers saying that oh, they follow recommendations and guidelines, and then basically say they don’t have to prevent infection or protect me, but hey you can mask if you wanna. I wrote to the CEO of Geisinger requesting ADA accommodation, and in his response he seemed more concerned with quote “patient experience” than he was about infection control. The response from the patient liaison also just repeated that they follow federal law and guidelines and that people who are actively sick are required to wear a mask.
The message I’m getting is that they’re not gonna do anything to stop transmission unless forced. The whole point of healthcare is to stop disease. I don’t want to get covid FROM going to the doctors. So is it about the money and the healthcare corporations wanting to just half ass it on the cheap? Because I can’t help but notice that the HICPAC committee has fancy people from highfalutin corporate executive positions, and NO PATIENT ADVOCATES. It’s been suggested this isn’t legal and might even render the committee’s recommendations null and void.
I can’t believe in 2023 we’re being forced into infection because the CDC has decided to adopt Brownstone Institute dark money connected people putting out PR publications that they call a meta study – a study that’s been widely debunked and lambasted. And this seems in order to not protect workers or patients. Right-wing anti-mask covid contrarian think tanks shouldn’t be dictating my healthcare and the working conditions of healthcare workers. The American people voted out the maga scott atlas great barrington declaration herd immunity garbage. I expected better from the Biden administration.
This whole process needs revamping because the so called experts involved are bizarrely disconnected from reality.
And I am not alone in these frustrations. Today I went to an impromptu online demonstration announced just last night about covid transmission in healthcare. This event attracted a couple hundred people at noon on a Thursday. And several people who spoke at this event repeated the same experiences and concerns that I’m running up against and that you’ve heard in previous comments to this committee. Healthcare providers putting them in danger and giving them covid, it’s unacceptable. We are not alone. Read the room. People want masks in healthcare settings.