After dozens of hospitals ended their masking policies, organizations are working to promote masking in healthcare again.
One group is MaskBlocABQ, which distributed masks outside a New Mexico hospital before security asked them to leave, Source NM reported Aug. 1.
Members of the mutual aid network stood outside Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., on July 29 and distributed more than 600 face masks before two hospital security guards said the facility does not allow for solicitors.
The hospital doesn't have a policy prohibiting mask distribution, one of the guards told Source NM. Presbyterian Hospital CEO Dionne Cruz Miller told the outlet Aug. 1 that the hospital system doesn't allow "vendors" to distribute anything at the system's locations without approval.
Similar organizations and efforts include People's CDC, which said in February that removing masks from healthcare is dangerous and unethical.
In May, COVID Safe Campus — which tracks mask policies in university-affiliated hospitals and health systems, according to its website — and COVID Advocacy Initiative/Mandate Masks US organized a week in May to advocate for keeping masks in healthcare settings.