NHS worker quit when she was stopped from wearing face mask

[DoofusOfDeath]

This must be a gutwrenching choice for persons who have dedicated their professional lives to helping others be well.

Lately I've seen numerous stories about health workers being demied PPE usage by administrators, or U.S. residents being told by government officials that masks weren't helpful to the general public.

Those stories seemed to be one sided; the only justifications from the other side seemed to be in the form of quotes from press releases, not interviews discussing their reasons.

Anyone know of articles that offer some balance?

[cjbprime]

The rationale I've heard from the hospital side seems self-contradictory: they are worried about liability from using an unapproved medical device (mask). But the liability from exposing a healthy patient to an unmasked sick worker, or exposing a unmasked healthy worker to sick patients, seems like it ought to be greater than that..

[LorenPechtel]

I doubt she threw away her career. They need medical people, she'll get another job.

[Traster]

I do wonder whether the western refusal to wear masks is more cultural & political rather than rational. Cultural because we don't have a culture of wearing masks and so changing our culture so you aren't judged is difficult, political in that it's politically difficult for public officials to say both "Masks do help stop the spread of this disease" and "We don't have enough masks, and we need them all for high risk workers & sick peeople so please don't try and get masks"

[pacamara619]

Couldn't she just have kept wearing the mask and if she got fired sue for wrongful termination?

[tyingq]

I'm guessing she felt like the the course she took would get it raised in the media sooner. Probably benefiting others, sooner.

[JoeAltmaier]

One dumb supervisor. Sad and oh so common. But not really newsworthy?

[tyingq]

Seems like a good use of the media to me. That one dumb supervisor could cost someone's life. Raising that to someone in the NHS that can fix it is worthwhile.

The official responses are bland and non-committal, so the public shaming seems needed.

[rasz]

In the middle of February Heathrow staff was ordering travelers disembarking planes from China to remove face masks because they could scare the population.

[Ackshully]

Anyone got an idea why this story was scrubbed from the front page so fast?

Seconds story I've seen wiped without reason just today and I haven't even been on here much.