On Saturday, July 18, my wife, Nicole Manley, arrived at Stratford General, the only hospital in our city of 40,000 in Southwestern Ontario. Upon entering the lobby she was greeted by the usual COVID sentry wearing visors, gloves, mask and gown. The sentry offered Nicole a mask. She refused and continued on her way for her thrice-weekly hemodialysis treatments.

That was easy, she thought.

Upon arriving at the dialysis clinic, however, Nicole was treated as though she had 20 kilos of TNT strapped to her chest. The staff immediately donned PPE and isolated her behind curtains. You’d think bodies were dropping in the street from the virus. Instead, our public health unit reports a total of 129 cases of SARS-COV-2 (since March!) and the death of five seniors (the first of whom had no respiratory complaints).

Nonetheless, Nicole’s four-hour treatment was completed with a verbal assault of shaming, scolding and fear-mongering from staff she once considered friends.

Nicole has many objections to being forced to wear a mask, including:

• The cognitive and moral decline that must accompany doing something that is ineffective and harmful to oneself and others
• The zombie-like atmosphere masks create
• The perpetuation of fear of a virus that has not even been properly isolated and a pandemic that mainly kills people at the end of their life
• The irritating and probably toxic off-gassing from the mask itself
• The disgusting practice of collecting germs in front of one’s face
• The waste of time and money spent enforcing and supplying disposalable surgical masks

As we learned more about the illogical agenda behind forced masking Nicole could no longer cooperate. I, on the other hand, felt that dialysis treatment was more important than fighting this battle. Her kidneys failed over a decade ago, a result of having developed type-1 diabetes at age 10. She is now beyond the typical life-expectancy for a 53-year-old woman on dialysis. That said, I seriously couldn’t imagine a hospital denying a renal-failure patient treatment simply because she wouldn’t go along with their mask farce.

Tuesday proved me wrong.

Upon arriving for her next treatment the sentries at the front door were advised to refuse Nicole entry if she would not put on the face diaper.

Thankfully, her doctor in London (Ontario) allowed her to come to the big city the following Thursday for dialysis treatment (without a mask) –– a one hour drive away. Thursday marked four days without dialysis, leaving her in a severe state where she could neither eat or drink.

In the meantime I composed this letter for Andrew Williams, the CEO of Stratford General, who ironically says on the hospital’s website: “The number one goal of your healthcare team is to ensure that you receive the right care at the right time in the right location.”

In my 3-page letter (including 15 citations) I listed seven randomized trials proving masks don’t work, as well as other evidence and quotes. Surely once the CEO saw that even the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases concluded that they “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community…” he would apologize and immediately allow for Nicole to return.

Next post, I’ll share with you the CEO’s response. It’s an interesting study in cognitive dissonance; and a life-threatening example of top-down tyranny.