Massachusetts Public Health Association and allies urge equity approaches hospitals and other healthcare institutions establish mask policies

Boston, MA – As the Massachusetts COVID-19 Public Health Emergency ends on May 11, public health advocates are calling upon hospitals, doctors, and other health providers to adopt masking policies that will continue to provide access to safer environments for their patients and their staff who are immunocompromised or otherwise at higher risk for the severe consequences of COVID.

“The end of universal masking policies in health care settings will put those seeking medical care who are already more vulnerable – people with respiratory diseases or cancer, people with disabilities, and older adults – at risk of contracting COVID and other potentially life-threatening illnesses,” said Carlene Pavlos, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA).

MPHA supports a more nuanced approach that centers equity and does not put the onus on the patient, an undue burden on those who may already feel disempowered in health care settings. One example that warrants consideration is the decision by UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester to keep masks in higher risk settings such as the emergency department and oncology. This  approach aligns with public health strategies deployed over the past few decades to reduce hospital-acquired infections that have shifted the practice of wearing gloves only in certain circumstances to one that is now considered a universal precaution.

Pavlos also underscored that predictions by public health advocates played out time and time again over the past three years as historically marginalized communities experienced the highest rates of COVID infections and death due to COVID.  According to the Commonwealth’s data collection, those who identified as Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Hispanic/Latine accounted for 76.84% of the cumulative case rates and 75.62% of the cumulative death rates since the onset of COVID-19 despite accounting for only 38.99% of the population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (COVID-19 Response Reporting | Mass.gov) These disparate health outcomes expose the deeply embedded systemic barriers caused by racial and social inequities that existed long before the pandemic and were exacerbated by it.

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