Ruth Werner

The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has some new habits that demand our attention. It has a faster replication rate, a shorter incubation period, and greater viral shedding than the other variants.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued some new guidance about mask usage among vaccinated people. In short, they said take ’em off—inside and outside, 6 feet apart and closer. But you may be wondering, what does this mean about masks in my session room?

With some evolutionary descendants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus being reported in the US, Ruth Werner gives an update on these COVID-19 variants and what we can do to address them.

Now that the COVID vaccines have begun to be distributed, we have a new question to ponder: When is it appropriate to offer massage therapy to clients who are going through this process? Ruth Werner, author of A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology, gives us her thoughts.

Pathology educator and author Ruth Werner recently had a conversation with Yaser Diab, MD, a hematologist working at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, about abnormal coagulation associated with COVID-19 and how massage therapy might fit in the context of COVID-19 survivors and coagulopathy. Read the notes from their conversation here.

Someday—maybe soon (whatever that means, in this time-distorted world)—we are all going to have to figure out the dos and don’ts of working with people who have had COVID-19.

Picture this: A person infected with SARS-CoV-2 is making blood clots. Gazillions of them. All over their body. Some are tiny, blocking the capillary supply to the skin and organs. Others are big enough to cause heart attacks, strokes, and pulmonary embolism.

I am a pathology educator, and it is my job to keep current with available information about pathologies, as it applies for massage therapists. This has been particularly challenging of late, because as we know, our understanding about COVID-19 changes hourly.