Cole is the real COVID scandal

Gazette conservative columnist Althea Cole's piece about being "Denied care at U of I Hospitals" deserves a second look. Ms Cole details how wearing the COVID required masks cause her debilitating headaches and led her to get a letter from her doctor saying she should be excused from wearing the mask. At UIHC the mask mandate was still in effect last week. When Cole refused, she was denied service. She said she also tried wearing a face shield instead but, "The inside of it reflected my own movement in a distorted fashion much like a funhouse mirror, causing me to become disoriented and unable to walk without assistance." Oh my.

My wife has punched the clock at UIHC for 33 years in the housekeeping department and has worked around AIDS, VRE, MRSA, C.diff, and hepatitis, along with TB, bedbugs and lice. UIHC is a big place and many patients are immunocompromised like the little kids who get cancer treatments and bone marrow transplants. The hospital needs to provide a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors and then have rules in place that help keep it that way.

While I sympathize with Ms. Cole's medical challenges, I wonder why she couldn't have taken some strong headache medication, even IV if necessary, befoe going in. And as for the face shields, she should get to experience what staff experienced by wearing both face shield and respirators while at work for years. And they walked without assistance.

Thomas Jacobson

Riverside

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