Heart & Hands + Green Muse Herbs joint masking statement
Green Muse Herbs and Heart & Hands Health Collective, as businesses, have both been built on values of economic and disability justice, mutual aid, community care, and upholding public health and safety. We are one of the few remaining safer retail and clinical spaces for people with vulnerable and suppressed immune systems and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. We are, above all else, a sanctuary for those seeking somewhere safe to heal, rest, and stock their home medicine cabinets.
Masking is a simple, accessible, and effective public health measure that most individuals can participate in. Asking our clients to wear a mask remains the easiest way to protect everyone who walks through our doors. This is especially pertinent as we are currently in the midst of the now-annual summer wave of respiratory virus transmission and fall is on the horizon, the wave is well on it’s way.
Each and every staff member/practitioner under our roof is self-employed and there are economic consequences if one of us gets sick. None of us get paid sick leave, some of us ARE immunocompromised and all of us face the risk of prolonged illness, including long COVID. SO, we mask for our own protection, for client/customer safety, but also because our income depends on it.
As health professionals with radical, community-centered politics we are requesting that you support us and our more vulnerable clients in keeping all of our community safe from the long-term effects of infection, and reinfection, by COVID and other respiratory viruses.
Each of our businesses have slightly different masking policies
that we’d like you to be aware of to mitigate risk:
Heart & Hands’ treatment spaces are mask mandatory. Multiple members of our team are immunocompromised and that our Community Acupuncture space is shared. Due to the sheer number of masks we provide for clients, our masks are available for $2.
On the Green Muse Herbs side, masks are available by donation right inside our doors, should you forget yours. They are also available from @masks4victoria should funds be a barrier.
Immunocompromised people matter and we are grateful for your ongoing support to ensure our establishment continues to be one of the few safe spaces left in town.