Arkansas massage therapists are grouped in with the Arkansas Department of Health Cosmetology section. Per the ADH and Governor Asa Hutchinson, massage therapists can go back to work starting May 6, 2020. This is concerning considering the recent developments that excessive blood clotting is linked to the Coronavirus. Massage is contraindicated for individuals with blood clots.(See References Below) However, people who do not present with virus symptoms may have excessive blood clotting unknowingly. This could cause an individual receiving a massage to release a blood clot and have a stroke. Knowing this information, we cannot ethically go back to massage when the number of people positive for Covid-19 is still increasing. 

That being said, this petition is to allow massage therapists who are not comfortable with massaging seemingly healthy individuals with the possibility of releasing a blood clot unknowingly, to be able to collect unemployment until the virus has maintained a negative trend for a minimum of 4 weeks, to be safe. According to the most recent briefing about opening Arkansas businesses, massage clinics will be able to open May 6th. This will stop unemployment for therapists. Also, may self-employed therapists have received no help as of May 2, 2020, due to no system in place for self-employed workers. 

Please consider these recent medical findings and allow us to draw unemployment until it is ethically safe to continue massage therapy.

References

https://www.sitcm.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/vet/V2.%20Learning%20Materials/SPE-1/Contraindications%20for%20Massage%20Therapy.pdf​

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7141630/​

http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/accj/early/2020/04/15/j.jacc.2020.04.031.full.pdf?download=true​

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200430113015.htm​

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21244171/stroke-coronavirus-symptoms-blood-clots