We need "Masks for All" laws

00:00:00.000 | Governor, I'm making this pitch directly to you.

00:00:04.600 | It's something that's really important.

00:00:06.760 | It's about the mask situation.

00:00:09.420 | As I'm sure you've heard, the CDC now recommends that we all wear masks.

00:00:13.740 | But this message to you is to tell you that that is not enough.

00:00:18.000 | You see, the thing is modeling shows that unless we get 80% of the population to wear

00:00:23.920 | masks, this isn't going to work.

00:00:26.520 | If we do get 80% to wear masks, the virus we expect will be completely blown away, transmission

00:00:32.680 | will be stopped.

00:00:33.960 | That's how important this is to the economy and to people's lives.

00:00:38.000 | I'm going to share with you two things now.

00:00:41.080 | The first is a segment I just did on CNN, and the reason I'm going to share it is that

00:00:45.240 | at the end of the segment, they asked the viewers, would you wear a mask?

00:00:50.320 | 92% of a sample of 20,000 said yes.

00:00:55.340 | This is a message that Americans can get behind.

00:00:59.240 | The problem is, though, we need nearly everybody to actually turn that into action, not just

00:01:04.960 | a poll on a TV station.

00:01:07.200 | So we need enforcement.

00:01:09.040 | I've already drafted up a simple piece of a law.

00:01:12.920 | It's actually based on the law that's already in Laredo, but I've done something extra to

00:01:16.800 | it.

00:01:17.800 | I've actually added a carve-out for N95.

00:01:20.900 | In other words, if you use this executive order, then it will be saying to people, you

00:01:26.280 | have to have a mask outside in public, but, well, in shops, gas stations, stuff like that,

00:01:32.760 | unless it's an N95 mask.

00:01:35.200 | That's not okay.

00:01:36.620 | So if you use this approach, you're actually going to get two things at once.

00:01:40.600 | You're going to ensure more supply for the hospitals who really need that vital PPE,

00:01:45.400 | because there's no point hoarding something that no one's allowed to use anymore.

00:01:49.720 | You're going to save lives and get the economy back up and running much sooner.

00:01:54.720 | So have a look at the segment, and then after that segment, if you're still wondering whether

00:01:58.440 | the science makes sense, there's a really great video from a top pathologist who explains

00:02:03.920 | why this really is the right approach.

00:02:07.640 | If you're interested in talking more about this, please feel free to reach straight out

00:02:11.640 | to me.

00:02:12.640 | I've made an email address just for this, policy@masksforall.co.

00:02:17.760 | You can see the text down at the bottom there.

00:02:20.040 | All right, I hope this works, and the sooner we can do it, the better, because things are

00:02:25.280 | changing every day, and actually I'm going to be on TV talking about this pretty soon,

00:02:29.900 | and I'd love to be able to show some good news.

00:02:31.880 | Who was the governor in America who was the first to move on this?

00:02:36.960 | That would be history-making.

00:02:37.960 | Thanks very much for listening.

00:02:39.760 | At the height of the HIV crisis, authorities did not tell people to put away condoms.

00:02:44.360 | As fatalities from car crashes mounted, nobody recommended avoiding seatbelts, yet in a global

00:02:50.080 | respiratory pandemic, people who should know better are discouraging Americans from using

00:02:54.700 | respiratory protection.

00:02:56.320 | Jeremy Howard is a distinguished research scientist at the University of San Francisco.

00:03:01.080 | He wrote those words for The Washington Post.

00:03:04.200 | Mr. Howard, the WHO initially said, "You only need to wear a mask if you're taking care

00:03:09.880 | of a person with a suspected COVID-19 infection."

00:03:14.440 | How did they get it so wrong?

00:03:16.320 | Well, we now know that about 50 percent of people that are infected have no symptoms.

00:03:22.680 | We also know that during the first week is when people are most infectious, when they're

00:03:26.720 | least likely to have symptoms.

00:03:28.560 | So what the WHO did here was that they did not err on the side of caution.

00:03:33.280 | They weren't quite sure of the science, and so they said, "Don't do it."

00:03:36.760 | What they should have said is, "Do do it," because what we now know is, or we strongly

00:03:41.120 | guess, is that if 80 percent of people in a community wear a face mask, any kind of

00:03:45.860 | cloth cover, it can actually stop the virus in its tracks.

00:03:50.660 | So here is the cloth cover that I am using.

00:03:53.200 | I don't know if you can see it.

00:03:54.940 | When I wear it, am I doing so to protect myself or to protect you?

00:04:00.280 | Primarily, you're doing it to do your bit in the community to protect others.

00:04:04.820 | We know that this disease spreads when we talk.

00:04:07.200 | Little droplets fly out of our mouth, so small you can't see them.

00:04:10.660 | It just makes obvious sense, and the science shows any kind of cloth cover stops that.

00:04:15.980 | It's actually been estimated by Yale researchers this week that each person wearing a single

00:04:21.080 | mask has a value of at least $4,000 to $6,000 due to the huge impact it has on transmission.

00:04:29.140 | There's some stunning data that you have provided me represented in graphs.

00:04:33.400 | I'll put it on the screen showing South Korea side by side with Italy, pretty self-explanatory.

00:04:39.620 | But please provide the background.

00:04:41.260 | Well, the really interesting background is that until late February, a lot of folks in

00:04:46.560 | South Korea couldn't get masks, and they were also continuing their kind of cultural approach

00:04:51.220 | of only wearing masks when they had symptoms.

00:04:54.660 | Everything changed in late February.

00:04:55.860 | The government stepped in and ensured that everybody had access to a mask.

00:05:00.140 | And you can see what happened.

00:05:01.140 | But before that, they were on track with Italy to be as bad as Italy, and then suddenly everything

00:05:05.620 | turned around.

00:05:06.620 | And now the number of cases there is decreasing without even a lockdown.

00:05:12.220 | I made reference to what the president had to say yesterday, the sort of juxtaposition

00:05:16.540 | of announcing this CDC recommendation and then saying that he himself wouldn't be engaging

00:05:21.660 | in that behavior.

00:05:22.660 | I want to roll a small piece of audio -- video, pardon me -- from this, and then I ask a question.

00:05:27.580 | Show it.

00:05:28.580 | This is voluntary.

00:05:32.100 | I don't think I'm going to be doing it, but you have a lot of ways you can look at it

00:05:36.420 | as follows.

00:05:37.420 | The CDC is recommending that Americans wear a basic cloth or fabric mask that can be either

00:05:43.860 | purchased online or simply made at home, probably material that you'd have at home.

00:05:49.760 | What does your review of the data from around the globe show as to the issue of cultural

00:05:54.740 | difference or even vanity?

00:05:56.700 | I know that you looked at the Czech Republic.

00:05:58.940 | Right.

00:05:59.940 | I was really surprised to find that, actually, there's lots of examples now of countries

00:06:03.420 | that have gone all in on this and are in the West.

00:06:05.940 | Israel, it's the law.

00:06:07.460 | Czech Republic, it's the law.

00:06:08.700 | Austria, it's the law.

00:06:10.140 | Slovakia, it's the law.

00:06:11.740 | And like in the Czech Republic, not only is it the law, they are so proud now to wear

00:06:15.700 | their masks.

00:06:16.900 | If somebody is behind you in the shopping line to do your weekly essential shopping

00:06:21.620 | and they're not wearing a mask, in the Czech Republic, people will look at that person

00:06:25.020 | now and say, why aren't they doing their bit?

00:06:28.180 | We know that COVID-19 is like a silent assassin now.

00:06:31.600 | As you walk around the streets, you could be killing people without knowing it.

00:06:36.580 | Masks are the closest thing we have right now to this kind of imperfect vaccine.

00:06:41.020 | Science just this week in nature shows that in studies, 100 percent of people that were

00:06:46.860 | tested, simple cloth covering stopped the transmission of those critical droplets.

00:06:54.480 | To beat the coronavirus, everyone should wear a mask.

00:06:58.060 | Hello, everyone.

00:06:59.060 | I am Dr. Chris Martinson, and I'm here to tell you how we're going to beat this coronavirus.

00:07:02.540 | I've been reporting on this coronavirus for 70 days.

00:07:05.700 | I have a PhD in pathology from Duke University, and I want to take you through the logic of

00:07:10.060 | why everyone should wear a face mask.

00:07:12.060 | It begins here with all these things that we can do, that we need to do to beat this

00:07:17.340 | particular virus.

00:07:18.580 | It begins here, but this is one of the most important steps right here, face masks for

00:07:23.620 | everyone.

00:07:24.620 | Now, why is that?

00:07:25.620 | Well, here's what we know.

00:07:26.860 | We know that this particular virus, it spreads really quickly and easily from both symptomatic

00:07:33.080 | and asymptomatic people.

00:07:35.220 | Let's imagine this woman here, she's got a perfectly normal temperature, but she can

00:07:40.340 | have the virus and be communicating it.

00:07:43.460 | Here's how you get this virus.

00:07:45.540 | Somebody who's infected gets a particle outside of their body, and that goes into your body.

00:07:51.020 | We know that very large infectious droplets fall out of the air very quickly.

00:07:55.900 | Smaller ones travel much further, but really tiny infectious droplet nuclei, they travel

00:08:00.820 | really far.

00:08:03.620 | These can form and they're super small, so they just blow around in the air.

00:08:07.540 | I'm going to show you a little bit about that.

00:08:09.580 | It's not just that somebody who's sneezing or coughing is passing this to other people.

00:08:16.420 | How do we beat this thing?

00:08:17.900 | Very simple solution to a very complex problem.

00:08:20.740 | Everybody wears a mask.

00:08:22.700 | Here's the logic behind that.

00:08:24.100 | Reason one.

00:08:25.100 | I'm going to give you three reasons why everyone should wear a mask.

00:08:28.060 | Number one is it stops infected people from expelling infectious particles.

00:08:35.080 | Remember these things up here?

00:08:36.380 | We want to keep those particles not out in the air.

00:08:39.900 | We want to keep them inside our masks.

00:08:42.180 | Let's look at the difference here.

00:08:43.700 | In this GIF right here, we're seeing somebody who's sneezing just into the air.

00:08:48.740 | Look at all those particles flying, and then yes, there is still stuff sneaking around

00:08:52.660 | the edges here, but look how much material got caught in the mask material itself.

00:08:58.760 | Here's another great piece of research that came out very recently.

00:09:01.460 | This shows the tiny particles that are being spread around when people are just talking.

00:09:08.940 | You see big particles falling out.

00:09:10.480 | You see little ones floating around.

00:09:12.180 | Every one of these is a particle that could be carrying infectious disease particles,

00:09:17.100 | viruses in there that could make you sick.

00:09:20.140 | Reason number one, everyone wears a mask, is so that the people who are sick are not

00:09:24.220 | spreading infected droplets all over the place.

00:09:27.880 | Reason number two that everyone wears a mask is it helps remind you not to touch the insides

00:09:33.020 | of your mouth or your nose.

00:09:35.900 | What we need to know is that, I hate this saying, don't touch your face because you

00:09:39.860 | know why?

00:09:40.860 | Because the virus doesn't come in through your face.

00:09:42.760 | It comes in through your mouth, and it comes in through your nose.

00:09:46.220 | It's also possible it can come in through the eyes, but a mask at least, if you're wearing

00:09:50.340 | a mask that covers up this part right here, you are not breathing those particles in to

00:09:56.100 | the places in your upper nose where the virus can bind or down in your lungs where the virus

00:10:00.860 | can also bind and begin replicating.

00:10:05.020 | That is reason number two.

00:10:06.640 | It helps to remind you not to touch the insides of your mouth or your nose.

00:10:10.700 | In fact, it will physically prevent you, that's what a mask will do, prevent you from touching

00:10:15.860 | the inside of your mouth and your nose.

00:10:18.780 | What's reason number three?

00:10:20.300 | Reason number three, really, really important.

00:10:22.380 | Look, if somehow these little particles get out and if you get one of those little particles

00:10:27.660 | inside your mask, you will still get ill potentially, but if you are infected anyway, you have a

00:10:33.860 | much, much better chance of starting small, that is with a low inoculum, and that gives

00:10:38.940 | you a much better disease outcome.

00:10:41.140 | There's an opinion piece in the New York Times by a couple of doctors here, and I love what

00:10:45.940 | they said.

00:10:46.940 | They say here, "Both large and small amounts of virus can replicate within our cells cause

00:10:53.420 | severe disease in vulnerable individuals, such as the immunocompromised.

00:10:57.540 | In healthy people, however, immune systems respond as soon as they sense a virus growing

00:11:02.340 | inside.

00:11:03.340 | Recovery depends on which wins the race, viral spread or immune activation.

00:11:09.220 | Virus experts know that viral dose affects the severity, the illness severity.

00:11:14.860 | Viral dose.

00:11:15.860 | So, in the lab, mice receiving a low dose of virus clear it and recover while the same

00:11:20.820 | virus at a higher dose kills them.

00:11:24.540 | Dose sensitivity has been observed for every common acute viral infection that has been

00:11:28.500 | studied in lab animals, including coronaviruses.

00:11:32.320 | So that's reason number three, gives you better odds of a lesser illness.

00:11:35.340 | If you do get a tiny virus particle through your mask, it will come in, but it'll be tiny.

00:11:40.740 | It'll be a small dose that increases your odds.

00:11:44.260 | So the three reasons everyone wears a mask, it stops the infected people from spreading

00:11:48.680 | it around.

00:11:49.880 | It helps prevent you from touching your mouth and your nose in particular.

00:11:55.020 | And if you do get infected anyway, much better odds that you're starting small with a low

00:11:59.140 | inoculum and that gives you a better disease outcome, a better chance of fighting it off.

00:12:04.180 | I want you to tune out all sorts of illogical articles out there that say things like this,

00:12:08.300 | which is a, well, you know, even masks that fit well against the face will not prevent

00:12:13.520 | inhalation of small particles.

00:12:15.300 | So this is saying it's not perfect, never let perfect become the enemy of the good enough.

00:12:21.140 | This person is making the argument that homemade masks is all worrying because there's some

00:12:25.580 | evidence that fabric masks can increase your risk of infection, but they're quoting clinical

00:12:30.060 | studies where nurses and doctors were around super infected people wearing homemade masks.

00:12:34.620 | That's not what we're talking about.

00:12:35.940 | All right.

00:12:36.940 | How do we beat this thing?

00:12:38.500 | Everybody wears a mask.

00:12:39.700 | It prevents the spread.

00:12:41.060 | It reminds us not to touch our mouth and our nose, and it gives you a better odds of a

00:12:45.660 | lesser illness.

00:12:46.660 | So what sorts of masks, hey, all kinds of masks, just not the ones with the little valves

00:12:51.040 | on them.

00:12:52.040 | We don't want those because those allow infected things to pass out of our, our mouths really

00:12:55.540 | easily in our nose.

00:12:57.200 | So any of these totally good, but you know what else is good and better than nothing

00:13:00.660 | because we need these right now for the medical frontline healthcare providers.

00:13:06.020 | Don't get these.

00:13:07.260 | Let's leave these right now later when supplies come back and they're ample for everyone.

00:13:12.220 | These are the best.

00:13:13.220 | But what do we do until then?

00:13:15.140 | Wonderful cottage industry of people making their own homegrown, a sewn mask, home sewn

00:13:19.320 | mask here, here with an insert of a HEPA filter.

00:13:22.580 | I bet this thing's doing a really good job, but you know what?

00:13:25.140 | It's doing a whole lot better than nothing.

00:13:27.640 | Remember people sneezing that stuff all out.

00:13:30.060 | And by the way, you can find these face masks and all over the place.

00:13:35.320 | People are making them, donating them.

00:13:37.700 | It's a wonderful, wonderful thing that's happening here.

00:13:39.660 | So this is how we beat this thing.

00:13:42.920 | We join together.

00:13:43.920 | We create face masks and we always, always, always wear a mask in public, whether we think

00:13:48.920 | we're healthy or not, or don't know, or we're sick.

00:13:52.000 | Any reason at all when everybody's wearing a face mask, we will beat this thing.

00:13:57.240 | Thank you for listening.

We need "Masks for All" laws

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