In a Nationwide exclusive, The Good Health Tribune spoke at length to an inner west Massage Therapist who has defied government directives and decided to continue business as normal. The Massage Therapist, whom we will call Ruben Mepaneway, because that’s his real name, spoke with our reporter.

“I heard about the parlour in Darlinghurst that copped the $10k fine last week. That doesn’t scare me. Now is not the time for me to turn my back on my clients. I hear all this talk about “flattening the curve”. Sure, it’s important to save lives. But it can’t all be about quantity of life, right? What about quality of life? Some of my clients live as many as 3 days per month with VAS pain scores of 1 or 2, in some cases as high as 3 out of 10!

Mr Mepaneway, claimed that a weekly massage was essential to keep his client’s fascia released, trigger points switched off, and chakra aligned.

“You tell me how these people are supposed to survive weeks of lock down with neck or back pain as high as 3/10? How are they supposed meet their civic duty to self-isolate if they’re unable to sit comfortably through 12 hours of Netflix per day?

Not on my watch, man. I will take some extra hygiene measures, using gloves, ceasing happy endings etc. But I won’t close down… I refuse to leave my clients in the breach like that”.