Better check the dentist or other health providers next. From a letter published today (not mine) [View all]

[question everything]

So I walk into my dentist's office, ready for a cleaning. Everyone I see is masked, as am I. I fill out the required form stating that I have no COVID symptoms, have been fully vaccinated and haven't been out of the country in the last few weeks (years, really). I meet a new hygienist and settle into the chair. We chat in the limited way possible with her hands in my mouth. It's April 2021, we both declare that we've gotten through the COVID months safely. We've been vaccinated, I say, have you?

"Oh, no," she says. "I don't believe in that stuff. I take hydroxychloroquine."

I am stunned. I ask to see the dentist. When he comes in, I notice that he is tightly masked and that the hygienist's blue paper mask is only loosely worn. I convey to him my distress that I was not told that the hygienist has not been vaccinated.

"That's her choice," he says. The conversation is brief, and he conveys no concern for me. I get out of the chair and leave.

Her choice, yes, and the dentist's choice to employ her. However, if I must declare details of my COVID status before I am treated, do I not deserve to know the COVID status of those who intend to treat me? Do I not have the choice to know — as they do?

Elizabeth McGarry, Edina

https://www.startribune.com/readers-write-pandemic-life-chauvins-sentence-eagan-parks-trash-policy-ufos/600064377/