If you are one of the massage therapists still laughing about the thing that you see as a mass hysteria event or media hyped event — the COVID-19 pandemic will set you straight soon enough.
Two and a half weeks ago, I was the same way. One of my clients said they went shopping and spent $500 on food and supplies and I asked what for? Then on the weekend, Costco, other big box stores and even regular grocery stores were out of all the basics – beans, canned goods, frozen foods, toilet paper, cleaning products hand sanitizer and just about everything. I was still saying what is going on. It really does not make any sense.
I still don’t get parts of it yet I am in the middle of one of the ground zero areas living 5 miles from the Life Care Center where it started and having my office in downtown Seattle where most everything has been or is shutting down. A week ago (03/04/2020), every one of my clients came in and said they were told to go and work from home until April 1 or some March 24. Schools were just closed yesterday and our Governor closed any event with over 250 people and advised smaller groups to meet only with the recommend guidelines in place.
I didn’t understand why it was happening until I got some numbers yesterday that explained it more.
In the USA, our health care capacity is under 1 million staffed beds; this is not adequate to accommodate the number of hospitalizations we are expected to see (4-8 million). Johns Hopkins University did a 3-year global survey of pandemic preparedness. Although the USA ranked at the top of the countries, even the US only scored a 42 out of 100. We simply don’t have the equipment, training, or messaging in place and we need to ramp up fast. No one does. That is why your choices today matter so much.
I still don’t get it totally though as this is going to create a disaster of unbelievable proportions in the economy with businesses like ours taking a big hit along with restaurants, hotels, airlines, travel of any kind let alone the stock market moving to a bull market. Employees in every industry are panicked to say the least maybe except for www.amazon.com and other tech companies that can work at home. Restaurants are closing temporarily they say. Is shutting down all business and travel worth removing the extra burden on our healthcare system that is supposedly happening or will happen?
That still doesn’t answer my question of why did this not happen with H1N1.
Will this go down as the great American hype pandemic or that we averted a real disaster?
Calling the Massage Profession
I still have not seen any help coming from our professional associations except for an article from AMTA and ABMP saying wash your hands etc. Here is WA we wish we had more help in understanding the situation and how it affects us and our clients. We are figuring it out on our own in closed Facebook groups sharing our fears and strategies.
In my Massage Therapists Guide to COVID-19 report, I included some suggestions for the massage profession to consider. We are clearly not ready for this type of emergency.
What if we had (thanks Laurie Lyons):
- A Dedicated full-time infection prevention practitioner to work on infection prevention aspects of the preparations, including education, training, and exercises.
- Designate a medical director to work closely with the infection prevention practitioner.
- A pandemic preparedness committee (or use an existing emergency management committee) that includes representatives of all clinical and support departments as well as senior administrators. ( applies to larger clinics, spas etc..)
- Participate in a local healthcare coalition, which includes neighboring clinics , local public health agencies, and emergency management. Members of multi-clinic health systems should integrate system-wide planning with local planning with other local clinics.
Still no updates from the major Franchises
I was also hoping for some statements from the major Franchises like Massage Envy, Hand and Stone and Green Spa on their policies mainly because they are so visible in the community and have been a spokes-company for the massage profession even though it is not all good things coming from them.
Christine OBrien says
I HAVE A MASSAGE PRACTICE IN NM i shut down as of Monday. i was scared we are to close to people and there is no 6 foot. the governor of NM closed spas today but said that 10 or more peopke are okay as long as its not in a shopping mall. what??? i work out of my house and decided not to take any risk what have you done? are you stillworkin/
Julie Onofrio says
I closed my business down in Downtown Seattle this week for 2 weeks for starters but am preparing for longer. It is a really scary time. The message is confusing and scary. I recommend finding local groups to help you through. We are all in the same boat but locals are in the smaller boat with you.
Julie
Christine Morris says
Hi Christine,
I am also an LMT in NM, I just made the decision today to not practice Massage Therapy until we know more. I am worried that it is a contraindication, but I cannot seem to find any info on it. The Board is saying the usual( sanitize, no more then 10 people in the establishment at one time. But no one knows what a massage will do to a carrier lets say. Obviously if you are sick, we will reschedule, but could we be triggering it?
Cheryl says
I closed March 14th. The safety of my clients is always my first concern.
Fran says
Hello, I am a massage therapist in AZ. I am at loss.
Wearing a mask to do a massage is very uncomfortable. And staying 6ft away how will I do that. Of course I do Ashiatsu too, but that’s not the solution.
I called the state board, they said it’s up to me.
Julie Onofrio says
get used to it.