To My Patients and Customers, 

Be Spectacled is a lot of things: a retail office, a gathering place, my small business, but primarily it is a clinic which provides comprehensive eye care. As one of our healthcare professionals, the best recommendation I can make for our community health is to encourage social distancing, and to keep you and your family home to slow the progression of COVID-19 (coronavirus). To do our part we are going to close the office for a week and then re-assess. We will be monitoring our phones/email, and will take care of anyone experiencing an ocular emergency. We will reach out to those who have an appointment scheduled in that time and discuss options. 

As a doctor, the first part of this message is easy, because it is the right thing for me to recommend. I will admit as a small business owner, an employer, and a human in 2020 it is not so easy. I am worried about the effects on the viability of the business. I, like many of you, thought this may be being blown out of proportion, and that we should take a business as usual stance. I have told myself, my employees, and my patients and customers that we sterilize our equipment, we practice the right hygiene, we wash our hands, we disinfect, we should be fine, and we should not contribute to the growing collective anxiousness. However, I have also worried about my family members and all of my patients who fall into the riskier categories. Today I realized I was experiencing the very human condition of denial and vulnerability, and I know now what is important is to promote what is best for the health of our community. 

I am ever grateful to this community. When we are open and everything is back to normal, I will continue to serve as your eye doctor for all of your eye care needs. Right now though, as a member of the community of health care providers, my best recommendation is for you to stay home and practice social distancing as much as you are able. Thank you for your understanding, and we will get through this. 

Dr. Mark