By  Allan Stevo
A dentist writes:
Dear Allan,Â
We are dropping our mask mandate 6/1/21. Can you provide a script we can post letting our patients know we are dropping the mask mandate? Â
Canât wait to be mask-free.Â
Of course our clinical staff have always worn level 3 surgical masks and will continue to do so during procedures rendered in operatories. Â
Fingers crossed you can help.Â
-Doctor LogicalÂ
â
In spring 2020, I understood face masks to be a danger to me. That was based on personal experience.
Based on extrapolation, I knew masks were a danger to millions of others.
Based on my voracious reading of any published science that is mask related, eventually I understood them to be a danger to virtually everyone. The science is hard to challenge at this point: face masks harm you, face masks harm children, face mask harm the elderly, the healthy, and the sick. Thatâs not even up for debate. The only question really is how much they harm you: badly or really, really badly? They are not neutral. They are not a minor inconvenience.
There were no shortage of LRC readers who helped to pound this into my thick head. Thank you for that. The fact that Mr. Rockwell makes contributors post their personal email address is one reason this website is so fantastic at being a beacon of truth.
By May 2020, the published science existed for me to be able to understand that worn incorrectly face masks can actually help to spread disease â meaning someone elseâs mask can be a harm to you.
By this point, I see face masks as total lunacy. I see mask wearing in the general public as the work of sick minds and the masking of children as the sickest of all, with the forced masking of the elderly and infirm as a close second, and the cruel masking of anyone who comes in to visit an Alzheimerâs patient as a very close third. Try that sometime if you wake up one morning and say to yourself âI know what would be fun! To confuse a loved one with Alzheimerâs even more.â Sick. Uncaring. Myopic world views are required to engage in such anti-human activity, and to do so on a mass scale is totally sick.
Dear reader, thank you for writing me to ask about this policy.
Things To Consider When Crafting A Face Mask PolicyÂ
A pithy sentence on the door might be my preference, but I recognize the need for professionalism and an effort to reach across a spectrum of patients.
A good notice needs to sound official.
A good notice should indicate a willingness to be in line with the law. âGuidelinesâ are not law.
A good notice needs to show that you respect âthe science,â a most lauded term in the post-2020 world.
In 2021, a notice needs to have rules to comfort those who want rules imposed upon them from every authority figure in life.
In 2021, a good notice needs to virtue signal a little.
Here goes:
ââ BEGIN NOTICE ââ-
Face Masks OptionalÂ
In compliance with local, state, and federal law, as of June 1, 2021, we will no longer be asking our patients, visitors, or staff to wear masks in this office.Â
No patient will be asked to mask. No patient will be asked to unmask. The choice will be left up to the individual patient.Â
The CDC has cautioned that a dirty mask may help to spread disease. [1] If you are going to wear a face mask, based on WHO guidance from 2009, single use only masks should only be worn once, they should be sterile when put on, they should be put on with clean hands, they should not be touched while being worn, neither the nose nor mouth should be touched when a mask is being worn, if touched during use they should be changed, they should be switched as soon as they become moist, they should be disposed of immediately after removal. [2]
If you choose to wear a mask, please do not leave used masks in the office, restroom, building, or parking lot as they pose a health hazard to others.Â
Our clinical staff have always worn ASTM Level-3 surgical masks and will continue to do so during procedures rendered in operatories. Â
[1] Xiao, J., Shiu, E., Gao, H., Wong, J. Y., Fong, M. W., Ryu, S., Cowling, B. J. (2020). âNonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare SettingsâPersonal Protective and Environmental Measures.â Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26(5), 967-975.
[2] World Health Organization. (2009). âAdvice on the use of masks in the community setting in Influenza A (H1N1) out-breaks.â Retrieved from here.
ââ END NOTICE ââ-
What Would You Change?Â
Since crowdsourcing is better at generating ideas than central committees of planners, let me ask everyone else: How did I do? What would you have added to this notice to make it better? Write me at allanstevo@yahoo.com if you see something and Iâll use your ideas to help others craft notices and policies.
Pioneers Can Be Richly RewardedÂ
Iâve been active in the Bitcoin industry since 2013, as a co-founder of an early exchange. Something I learned early in the industry is that passionate people are willing to lead the way and to support others who share their passion. Early on, many businesses that announced they were taking Bitcoin had an unexpected boom in sales come as a result. Today, in some industries itâs practically expected that you accept some kind of cryptocurrency, so a boom in sales like that is no longer the case. Doing the bare minimum does not offer rewards, but brave pioneers are rewarded.
In American history, those who crossed the continent 150 years ago and put their claim on a choice piece of land still have towns and counties named after them. Pioneers take risks and sometimes reap huge rewards.
I donât expect you to get a county named after you for having face mask courage in May 2021, but I think there are huge rewards to reap from a public that is hungry for leadership anywhere it can find it. The fact that you even wrote me this note tells me you are a leader.
Collect Your RewardÂ
I hope you will take out ads in the local paper and post billboards saying that your office does not require masks. Make it your biggest selling point. Hire a staff memberâs 19-year-old daughter as a part-time social media assistant to post your new policy all over the internet.
Every time your patient asks about the policy say âYes, that is our new policy. We put a lot of thought into it. Why donât you take a photo and share it?â Do this even if they ask about the policy angrily. Yes, you even want the angry to share it. Their share will reach others, foe and friend alike. The foes wonât care much and will complain online uselessly as haters are apt to do, the friend will have found a new dentist.
Listen to me: there are thousands of mothers within a thirty-minute drive of your office who woke up this week and said âI wish I had a dentist who wasnât a mask hole that I could take my kids to.â I know this because they write me. Dentists are a dime a dozen. Dentists with a spine are not. This is a golden opportunity for you.
If a patient mentioned your policy walking in the door, bring it up again later at the end of their visit. When they leave the office be sure to have someone say to them âTell all your friends about us.â Again, do this whether they are happy with the policy or angry. Passion moves ideas in the age of social media. The more your good idea moves, the better off you are. This new policy is a good idea.
Passion Is Good At Attracting People To Your Great IdeaÂ
Some will hate your policy, others will love it. Some of those who love it may even travel just to support you. There are very passionate people on this issue seeking leadership and courage and finding so little.
Put out a press release to the media announcing your new policy. If you donât know how to do this, just let me know and Iâll happily help. Put several press releases out a month. Become âthat dentist who doesnât require face masks.â
Sure youâll rile some people up but youâll get the passionate activists in your door. Some will come for dental cleanings they didnât need just to support you. Others, like me, will never forget that you stood up when our country needed you to stand up.
I have a list in my head of local businesses who took a stand this past year. I have a growing email list of the same. I hardly spend a penny anywhere else, even though many more places are opening. Gas stations, restaurants, churches, and stores, I support the brave and have a long memory for the cowards.
Your New Problem Will Be How To Keep Up With The Stream Of New Patients Coming In The DoorÂ
Done right, I bet youâll have to hire new hygienists by next Friday and will triple your business by the end of the month.
Three months from now 3/4 of dentists will probably have your same policy or something like it: some form of âdonât ask, donât tellâ related to face masks and Covid shots. Today you are the pioneer.
You are being handed an opportunity that dentists have begged for for time immemorial: product differentiation. How do I show that Iâm better? How do I let others know how much better I am for my patients? How do I let my potential and existing patients know how much better I am than the competition?
Product Differentiation: Dentists Are Not Commodities, But Many Treat Them That WayÂ
Dentists are not commodities. They are not interchangeable. Some are good. Some are awful. Your office has a chance to shout from the rooftops âWe are different. We are better. Come to us,â and for the first time in decades of practice, you are going to have a lot of people listening.
Dentistry is not a sexy industry. Leadership is. You are making a clear statement that yes, you are in the dentistry business and are excellent at that, but youâre also in the leadership business and will be excellent at that too.
There is a shortage of leaders in our world today.
Look around us at the people who are lauded as leaders: television, industry, politics. These are not people who deserve to be followed.
The moment someone even slightly worthy of following stands up, the people flock to him. At the same moment the pariahs all beat him down, realizing what a threat he is to their existence.
The hyenas need you to not lead, the chattering classes need you to not lead, the managerial class needs you to not lead. They need regular people to say âI will delegate all leadership in my life to those who are âexpertsâ in leading.â They suck at leading. Every day since the Ides of March 2020 has proven that.
Why Good People Get Attacked
The hippie mom in Marin County, California who wonât mask her son, the grandma on the south side of Chicago who wonât be a vaccine experiment, the Iowa farmer who doesnât trust the narrative, the Denver small business owner who doesnât let masks in his door, the immigrant grandpa who isnât going to be PCR tested â these people all have more common sense in their pinkie finger than any talking head on TV has spoken publicly in the last week. That means they can lead in their lives better, they can manage in their lives better than any member of the managerial class can.
Yeah. The managerial class, the technocratic class. Yeah of course, they want to beat you down and silence you and tell you that you arenât fit to lead, not even in your own life, not even in your own family, and definitely not in your own community.
Of course they want you to think that, because if you stopped being convinced to quiet down and just stood up to lead, theyâd have to go and get a real job.
The Mute Button Is Your Best FriendÂ
Their strategy is to demoralize you, confuse you, and discourage you so that you say to yourself âThis is all really complicated and exhausting. I must really need them to make decisions for me.â
They want you to feel that way about every aspect of your life. The good news is that if you just mute them, and focus on living life well, life becomes a lot simpler.
Leadership In Your Own Life Is The Real Frontline In This Psychological BattleÂ
If regular people tap into their capacity to lead, in ways small and large, there are a whole lot of people out there in the world living pretty comfy existences who will be out of a job in the morning.
They get that. They need to beat down leaders to stay in that comfy spot. They canât compete. They would lose. They need to play dirty. Their ability to fly private depends on it.
You, my friend, are a leader.
Please redraft this new policy to fit your needs. And then, please shout it from the rooftops.