Remember back in spring 2020, when severe personal protective equipment shortages plagued hospitals across the country? Healthcare providers on the frontlines reused dirty masks or tried cleansing them with solar power as they posted heartbreaking photos of their faces nearly bruised from the pressure of wearing an N95 for hours on end. Some who expected they would be infected even rented out separate apartments to keep their own families safe from contamination.
Eventually, global supply chains beefed up the production of masks and other protective gear, vaccines were developed and released, which combined with natural immunity massively reduced the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. In May 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rolled back some of its transmission prevention rules, recommending hospitals reinstate mask mandates as community transmission rises, but ultimately leaving it up to individual hospitals to decide when and how that process unravels while also removing universal testing requirements for patients and hospital staff.
