Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1231077
• Reevaluate hygienic practices and scheduling practices. Use recommended disinfectants and schedule the time necessary for them to be effective. Swab more than the face cradle: get all the surfaces your client touched. Sorry, but the days of 10-minute turnovers are probably over. In this vein, it may be time to reconsider your choices for personal protective equipment—not necessarily hospital gowns, gloves, and masks, but uniforms and linens. Do you have blankets or other covers that you use multiple times between laundering? Time to reconsider that practice. I have advocated for massage therapists to change their shirt or apron with every client for years; maybe it's time to plan on that adjustment too. • Air quality. Do you work in a small room with little ventilation? Has a client ever coughed or sneezed in there? Consider whether an air filter would be helpful. Although the COVID-19 virus is not efficiently spread as an airborne pathogen, clients who cough or sneeze may expel particles small enough to float. An air filter needs to be fine enough to catch those particles to be effective. • Waiting room. Does your office have a waiting room where people may be seated close to one another? It may be time to redesign this, or to manipulate schedules to minimize populating a waiting room that needs to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected regularly. • Vaccine policy. And lastly, I predict that you are going to need to make a decision about a vaccine. We expect to have a vaccine for COVID-19 within 18–24 months. As professionals who work intimately with others, I suggest that it will be important for massage therapists to get the vaccine. But the other half of that question is whether you will be willing to work with clients who are neither immune nor vaccinated. These clients may leave viral traces for other clients who are neither immune nor vaccinated, and the cycle could begin again. This is a very touchy topic, with a lot of ramifications, and I won't go deeply down this rabbit hole here. But it's something you will need to decide, and you will need a carefully considered rationale for your policy. What Comes Next? When it comes to how to reopen a practice and what new standards we should adopt, many massage therapists will probably look to health-care policy providers. We have an opportunity in this moment to work for closer relationships with organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). These bodies set infection control standards for many health-care providers. It would help hundreds of thousands of massage therapists if we had specific, practical, and evidence-informed guidance on this topic for us as well, and I encourage our membership organizations to represent our profession well in this arena. Resources Coronavirus, Explained. Vox. n.d. Accessed April 2, 2020. www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19. Editorial Board. "Opinion: Got Coronavirus Antibodies?" Wall Street Journal. April 1, 2020. www.wsj.com/articles/got-coronavirus-antibodies-11585782003. Florida, Richard and Steven Pedigo. "How Our Cities Can Reopen after the COVID-19 Pandemic." Brookings. March 24, 2020. www.brookings.edu/blog/the- avenue/2020/03/24/how-our-cities-can-reopen-after-the-covid-19-pandemic. Meyerowitz-Katz, Gideon. "Here's Why Herd Immunity Won't Save Us from the COVID-19 Pandemic." ScienceAlert. March 30, 2020. www.sciencealert.com/ why-herd-immunity-will-not-save-us-from-the-covid-19-pandemic. US Department of Labor. "OSHA Worker Rights and Protections: Occupational Safety and Health Administration." n.d. Retrieved April 2, 2020. www.osha.gov/workers/index. html?fbclid=IwAR1cw6pY9EOVblU5VdaZ3Lia48J_hf80ECyBKaKV-F6n3kaQjp5-XCLROJY. If We Do This Right If we make this transition well, and if we work to build relationships with other health-care providers and policy-making bodies, then the profession of massage therapy could emerge from COVID-19 sad to have lost loved ones, but stronger than ever. We could use this "pause button" on our profession to look at our own practice habits—and to make the appropriate updates. We could do this in such a way that a majority of massage therapists would be willing and able to update as well. And in the process, we could create a standard of practice that would encompass necessary business versatility, therapist safety, and excellent, evidence-informed client care. COVID-19 is a dangerous, horrible, often deadly disease. In every single way, it would be better if we didn't have this challenge. But since we do, let's step up and use this opportunity. I am standing by to be helpful. Ruth Werner is a former massage therapist, a writer, and an NCBTMB-approved continuing education provider. She wrote A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology (available at www.booksofdiscovery.com), now in its seventh edition, which is used in massage schools worldwide. Werner is available at www.ruthwerner.com or wernerworkshops@ ruthwerner.com. F o r t h e l a t e s t i n f o r m a t i o n v i s i t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c o v i d - u p d a t e s . 45