Physician morale and the doctor's voice

<p>"It is dangerously unfortunate that the use of masks has been politicized in many parts of our nation. The Dakotas (or North and South COVID as they were recently called on Saturday Night Live) are far from exempt from this phenomenon. Likely, if Governor Burgum’s decision was less influenced by fear of criticism from his constituents and political retaliation, he would have required a mask mandate long before making it acceptable for infected individuals to leave their home. Masks have time and again proven to be safe and effective. It’s not a big ask."</p> <p><a href="https://health.usnews.com/doctors/sheetal-rao-638013" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sheetal Khedkar Rao</a> is an internal medicine physician.</p> <p>She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "<a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/11/the-problem-with-allowing-covid-positive-health-care-workers-to-continue-working.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The problem with allowing COVID-positive health care workers to continue working</a>." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/11/the-problem-with-allowing-covid-positive-health-care-workers-to-continue-working.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/11/the-problem-with-allowing-covid-positive-health-care-workers-to-continue-working.html</a>)</p>