Grassroots group of physicians rallies broad support for masking, universal mandate
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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, MHM, knows that medical professionals have been diligent about universal masking in hospitals as a preventive measure.
Yet outside the hospital, Arora noticed very different behaviors.
“We saw an extreme disconnect between what we were doing in the hospitals and what we were seeing in our communities, where people weren’t wearing masks and community transmission was high,” Arora, associate chief medical officer of clinical learning at University of Chicago Medicine, said in an interview with Healio. “One of the challenges was that the message on masking was so bungled due to changes in recommendations and frank misinformation.”
Her concern about noncompliance with masking drove Arora, fellow clinician Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at University of Illinois Cancer Center, and other members of the grassroots organization Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, or IMPACT, to draft an online petition seeking a national masking mandate. Approximately 10,000 people have signed the petition to date, Jain said, and other groups have joined in advocating for such a mandate.
“We as a group have been able to rally a lot of other national medical organizations, and also non-health care organizations, to put out statements that a national mask mandate is extremely important,” said Jain, who also hosts Healio’s Oncology Overdrive podcast. “We rallied our friends and colleagues across the country and many organizations have echoed the same sentiment, with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies [CMSS], the Association of American Medical Colleges and even retail associations coming out in support of a masking mandate.”
Spreading the word
After disseminating the online petition, Jain, Arora, and colleagues from CMSS and GetUsPPE — a volunteer group connecting health care providers with supplies of personal protective equipment — wrote articles emphasizing the need for a universal mask mandate. One article, published on Health Affairs Blog, stated that the politicization of mask wearing in the United States has interfered with efforts to control COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, especially at the beginning of this pandemic, masking seemed to have become a very divisive political topic, but what we have seen over the last several months, especially as our numbers and death counts have gone up, is that leaders on both sides of the aisle have begun to step up and emphasize the importance of masking,” Jain told Healio.
A second article, written by Jain, Arora and Marla Clayman, PhD, MPH, and published on the online platform Medium and on Doximity, discussed the importance of messaging when seeking to change public health behaviors.
“One thing that’s important to remember is that just like wearing a seat belt or wearing a helmet while riding your bike, wearing a mask is meant to protect you and others,” Jain said. “It’s not meant to take away your civil liberties.”
Jain said it also is important that the message be communicated by relatable role models.
“We found it’s more likely that people will listen to the messaging and wear a mask if they hear it from people who they relate to,” she said. “Therefore, having celebrity, community or religious leaders wear masks and model the message can be incredibly important in messaging that is effective.”
Arora said in addition to becoming muddled by political differences, the message around masking initially was overshadowed by concerns about ensuring adequate supplies for health care workers.
“Early on, because there was so much fear that people would buy and hoard N95 masks, we actually heard leaders say, ‘Please don’t wear masks,’” Arora said. “This was due to incredible concern about not having enough personal protective equipment for health care workers.”
Not ‘mandate or nothing’
Jain, Arora and their colleagues at IMPACT suggested offering states financial incentives to enact mask mandates, as has been done to encourage adoption of seat belt laws.
“Our goal is really to use all the tools we have to promote masking,” Arora said. “We are not ‘mandate or nothing.’ We are really thinking about multiple ways we can promote masking.”
IMPACT also has joined forces with other masking initiatives aimed at the youngest members of the population. For instance, the organization partnered with a family of two doctors and an award-winning illustrator to distribute their free coloring book, “Masks, Masks, Masks!” which provides educational messaging on the use of masks for children.
Jain said IMPACT’s efforts to encourage masking are intended to make the public aware that this small precaution has the potential to keep people safe and control COVID-19 until a vaccine is available. Additionally, she said, controlling the virus is essential to restoring any status quo to American society.
“If we want to relaunch our economy and be able to safely reopen businesses, if we want to be able to send our kids back to school, if we want to get back to some sort of normalcy of life, we have to get this pandemic under control,” she said. “Until there is an effective vaccine and/or an effective treatment, we won’t be able to do that unless most of the country is wearing masks to control the spread.”
References:
- Arora V and Jain S. “The messaging of masks: Overcoming disinformation.” Op-Med. Doximity Network. Aug. 19, 2020. Available at: https://opmed.doximity.com/articles/the-messaging-of-masks-overcoming-disinformation?_csrf_attempted=yes. Accessed Aug. 31, 2020.
- Change.org. We need a federal mask mandate: #AmericaMaskUp. Available at: www.change.org/p/nancy-pelosi-we-need-a-federal-mask-mandate-americamaskup. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
- CMSS.org. Statement — Respect science, wear masks. Available at: https://cmss.org/respect-science-wear-masks/. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
- Health Affairs Blog. The case for a national universal masking mandate. Available at: www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200804.515241/full/. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
- IMPACT. Available at: www.impact4hc.com/. Accessed Aug. 31, 2020.
- Lemelman M, et al. “Masks, Masks, Masks!” Available at: https://maskcoloring.com/. Accessed Aug. 31, 2020.
- Medium.com. Misinformation and masking: Salvaging the message. Available at: https://medium.com/@ShikhaJainMD/misinformation-and-masking-salvaging-the-message-339270f8d4f. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
For more information:
Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, can be reached at varora@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu and on Twitter @FutureDocs.
Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, can be reached at sjain25@uic.edu and on Twitter @ShikhaJainMD.
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Health Affairs Blog. The case for a universal masking mandate. Available at: www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200804.515241/full/. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
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