Dear Editor:

I think it is incredibly naive and irresponsible to publish an article suggesting treatment for COVID-19 symptoms, especially including treatment for "confirmed cases." How could we?! Whether or not acupuncture can in fact treat any of the symptoms, this is not the disease to start seeing patients for.

Even if you were to assume that you could in fact treat COVID-19 symptoms, an acupuncturist's office is not equipped to care for such cases. Hospitals treat COVID patients in special negative-pressure rooms that change the air in the room a minimum of 12 times per hour. How many acupuncturist offices do that? And health care practitioners working with COVID patients wear N95 respirators; special isolation gowns which are impermeable to fluids; face shields; and have sterilization protocols far beyond what is utilized in any office setting. Despite all of that, this is so contagious that they still try to limit their time spent in the same room as the patient.

I would be surprised if any acupuncturist has all that gear – as well they shouldn't, as it's needed by hospitals right now. Health care workers routinely working with COVID patients are also quite typically assigned to just COVID patients so as to not risk infecting others. How many acupuncturists are also going to just see COVID patients so as to not put their other patients at risk?

A large focus of the recent editions of Acupuncture Today have been on reopening during the pandemic and getting patients to come back. I can guarantee that if your patients find out you are treating people with COVID symptoms, you are not going to successfully restart your practice. And in most states, it is not even currently legal to treat COVID patients. Instructions from local officials explicitly state that you are to turn away anyone with symptoms. But even if your state does not prohibit you from treating people with those symptoms, your local health department is certainly going to shut you down the first time a contact tracer finds out that one of your patients tests positive (as well they should).

Let's not be naive. This is not a disease for which it is appropriate to see patients in your office. We need to stick to evidence-based practice and follow the science, especially if we want to be respected by others in health care and our communities, and help contain this pandemic.

Christi Raunig, LAc
Corvallis, Ore.

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Editor's Note: As we've stated previously and now include as a pop-up whenever you enter a digital issue, any article we publish pertaining to TCM treatment of COVID-19 is intended to add to the evidence base supporting the acupuncture profession's value within public health and health care in general. We are not suggesting or recommending you treat COVID-19 patients at this time.

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