Act Now for Masks in Healthcare
Help People's CDC Gather Hospital CEO Emails and Send a Letter to Your Governor
Dear friends:
The CDC is endangering us all with its guidance that hospitals can end universal masking. Along with local groups, like Mandate Masks NY, Northern California’s Senior and Disability Action, Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity and many others, we are urging action to #KeepMasksInHealthCare.
Healthcare is reaching a pivotal moment, facing a major crisis. Hospitals and health systems are being pressured by external and internal forces to end crucial precautions, including ending universal masking. They are forcing the most vulnerable and disabled to receive care in a more dangerous setting! We recently reported (April 10 Weather Report) that US Health & Human Services data show that in just the first three months of 2023 there already have been at least 138,000 hospital-acquired COVID infections in the US.
We must do everything we can to press on government leadership and health system leadership that universal masking must remain, as COVID transmission levels remain substantial and higher in many places across the US. Even when community transmission is low, healthcare settings remain the most likely place that a patient with COVID seeking care might encounter a vulnerable person seeking safe healthcare. Healthcare should be safe for everyone at all times.
Take urgent action:
Send a letter to your governor using our action network form to tell them that they must support universal masking in healthcare settings. Click here to send a letter to your Governor! We recommend also writing your legislators, and calling both legislators and Governor to follow up.
We need your help to get email addresses for your local hospital and health system leaders. We are compiling a list of health system leadership so you may contact them to show your support for universal masking in healthcare settings. Click here to submit their contact information by Tues, April 18th!
And you can write and mail your own health care providers and local officials, attaching this detailed letter on the reasons for universal masking. We’ve also included a resource signed by healthcare and public health professionals that you can download and show to your elected officials or hospital administrators.
