Minnesota Hospital Brings Back Mask Mandates

A Minnesota hospital is among the latest bringing back mask mandates, more than three years after the start of the pandemic.

Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital in Ely, Minnesota, announced last week that it would be bringing back mask rules, citing rising cases of the coronavirus.

“Important Update: Due to a recent increase in COVID-19 cases, mandatory masking at Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital will be effective immediately for all individuals in our facility,” the Facebook update reads, noting that this rule will be in place for at least two weeks.

“Mandatory masking will be in place for a minimum of 14-days. Throughout this time we are still here to serve you. Please keep your appointments and utilize our Emergency Department as needed,” the update reads.

Some commenters were displeased, asserting that the hospital is ignoring science.

“We did this before. ’14 days’ didn’t stop anything,” one user said, as another pointed to the Cochrane Library study, which concluded that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks[.]”

Nevertheless, Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital is hardly the only health care facility taking these actions. Massachusetts’ Baystate Health brought back mask mandates, requiring those entering patient rooms or care areas to mask up. Dr. Andrew Artenstein, Baystate Health’s chief physician executive and chief academic officer, said the move would “protect the safety and health of [their] patients, visitors, and employees.”

Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital is not alone. As Breitbart News reported:

Elsewhere, the University of Chicago Medical Center is bringing back masks, forcing employees to wear them when coming in “direct contact” with patients, per CBS News.

The trend continues in New Jersey, where Cape Regional Medical Center in Middle Township is requiring employees to wear masks, citing an “increase in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID at Cape Regional Medical Center as well as community members with COVID.”

Notably, Dr. Anthony Fauci privately admitted at the beginning of the pandemic that the “typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material” — a fact long ignored by the establishment media throughout the pandemic.

RELATED VIDEO — Fauci: Masks Didn’t Work for “Broad Population” but on Individual Basis “There Is an Advantage”: