From the Publisher's Perch

Thu, Jul 23, 2020

For the past several years, Dr. Zack Bechtol has been my go-to doc in Grove, Oklahoma. We get along because we're both woven along the lines of direct if not offensive communication techniques. He tells me to lose weight, cut down on my scotch and to get that blood pressure in order, but there is never a doubt he's telling a patient what they need to know….And sometimes they don't want to know. As for my part of the relationship, I advise him what's wrong in the area of practice management.

Dr. Bechtol has authored the following guest editorial/opinion piece regarding the raging mask controversy for your consideration.

See Ya' Around the Pond!! 

Masks, A Time and a Place

 

Recently I got caught up in the entrenchment of sides regarding mask usage and I was frankly caught off guard by the staunch illogical positions on both ends of this debate. Since soon after the early stages of this impact on Grove and Grand Lake and the visceral effect it had on one of our own Nursing homes and 16 of its residents who died, I have been going on the KGVE noon show with Larry Hestand and discussing the medical facts of what's been happening here in Delaware County and how we are responding to it locally. Amazingly, and without a lot of mask wearing, the disease quickly dissipated and our numbers were almost non-existent despite extensive looking and testing for the disease.

By Mid-May you couldn’t find a sick patient, (and I looked closely). I stopped wearing a mask and stopped requiring my patients to wear a mask to be seen, after thorough screening and vetting for illness and travel. I also made comments on the radio that our county was having very low prevalence of any detectible disease and no one was getting sick. Everyone was hurting financially and scared as hell to even come to the doctor. I felt compelled to get out and lead by example. So I went and got my hair cut, went to the diner and had breakfast couple times a week, had my teeth cleaned all without a mask; and encouraged people to keep up their antennas but relax a bit. This began to change in late June.

Please try to understand what I am saying and the context from which my position comes from. I have very vulnerable patients that I see every day, I must protect myself and my business from Covid or I am shut down or someone at risk gets sick. I also work a 24hr ER shift in OKC a few times a month and when I am there I stay with my 80 year old parents. I cannot take unnecessary risks at all. So what is this? Am I just being reckless or cavalier? Not at all. But I am in a position to know what's going on more so than the lay public. I walk into ICU and medical floors everyday so I immediately know when the illness is here, and how to respond. Much more so than you. But we are working to change that and keep the public more informed of local disease numbers through an alert system.

Let me point this out; masks are most beneficial when a detectible disease is present. We went nearly 2 months with below single digit positive test per week, not per day- per week. And not a single person sick or even calling in sick. I personally sent text to every Dr on staff and in the county including IHS, Jay, and Kansas and asked. It just wasn’t here. Yet fearful people cling to this mask issue like we were somehow linked to NY and their risks. This scenario was not unique to Delaware County. In fact large areas of the country especially rural areas with low population densities, no public transportation, or high rise buildings requiring elevators had only marginal if any real evidence of covid-19 unless you traveled to a hot zone. Don’t ask or mandate these areas to wear a mask. It's wasting resources.