At a conference in London with several hundred people, most critical care doctors. Coughing. Every session. Almost non-stop. The only mask I have seen is on my own face. I don’t get why people feel ok about this given the mountains of evidence accumulating around viral long term sequelae. - ThreadSky

garnalan.bsky.social • 83 days ago

At a conference in London with several hundred people, most critical care doctors.

Coughing. Every session. Almost non-stop.

The only mask I have seen is on my own face.

I don’t get why people feel ok about this given the mountains of evidence accumulating around viral long term sequelae.

Comments

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

Well done Alan. It takes courage to quietly show consistent leadership by silently resisting idiocy.

For doctors, and this group of doctors in particular, not to mask is, on the face of it (pun), totally weird, weird behaviour. 🧵

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

It can't be explained by lack of knowledge of the acute risks of respiratory viruses although it does seem to me that some doctors do lack the knowledge of the longer term risks of Covid.

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

I have some ideas about why critical care/ cancer/paediatric/emergency or other groups of doctors don't mask at large conferences or in the workplace.

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

1. 'I don't want to stand out.'= conformism in a hyper- hierarchical profession.
Some individuals higher up the tree stopped doing it and the behaviour spread. Most of those who didn't want to unmask weren't brave enough to continue to mask.

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

2. 'It won't get me' = magical thinking . I think that doctors use this defence freely. It helps to deal with the things that doctors have to see and deal with all the time. 'IT' may be an unexpected catastrophe or unbearable suffering suffered by someone who didn't 'deserve' it.

lolat42.bsky.social•78 days ago

3. 'I'm not going to live in fear' = fear.
Without the defence of imagining oneself to be immune to hurt or harm it can be too scary to carry on in medicine: 'Maybe it will get me?'.

ted-in-to.bsky.social•83 days ago

I had a similar experience at a critical care conference in my country. I was amongst a few people masked in a very large room that included people who were, theoretically, exponentially brighter than I am. What information do these people have that I do not have?

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