together. Well, a new study is showing the U.S. could drastically lower its number of coronavirus cases by simply wearing a mask. According to the data from UC Berkeley, if 80 percent of us wore a facial covering in public, our COVID-19 infection rate would drop to about one-twelfth the number of cases.

So why is it that only 14 states require it? Joining us now is someone who's really striving to change that, co-founder of the Global Masks for All Movement, Jeremy Howard. Jeremy, thank you so much for being with us. Bring us up to speed on your efforts. Thanks so much for having me.

So I'm one of the over 100 signatories to a letter that was released yesterday. It does talk about that research and other research. And the letter asks that all governors require masks in public. This is a really big step you mentioned earlier in the segment about the kind of relationship between Russia and the US.

It's an important debate. But let me tell you what the scientists on this letter include. A Nobel Prize winning virologist, a Nobel Prize winning economist, the editor in chief of Nature, the world's top science journal, the editor in chief of the Lancet, the world's top medical journal. This is something which scientists consider so important that they are coming out publicly and saying the science says we have to do this if we're going to see these lockdowns and avoid a second wave, avoid the death count getting bigger and get the economy back up and running again.

But Jeremy, can I ask where do you live? So I'm in San Francisco. Well, I'm currently with my family in Houston, Texas. OK. Do you see a difference between those two places as far as how people react to wearing the mask? Oh, yes, absolutely. So both of those states do not require masks.

Only 14 states require masks. But my hometown of San Francisco does, as does Houston. So there's a kind of a difference in between cities, between states. What I've seen is there's a lot of kind of confusion, which is quite quite reasonable. Let me ask you, is it a confusion or is it culture?

Because I've lived in California and I've lived in Texas. And I think in Texas you're going to have a hard time requiring the whole state to wear masks. It could be. I mean, we'll have to see. I think what we've seen happening, though, is when the death count goes up really high, like happened in New York, it wasn't until that people started saying, OK, we'll take this pill.

So if winter comes and the death count shoots up in Texas, I think people might say, well, given a choice between my family dying and wearing a mask, maybe I should just wear the mask. Is that what it's going to take? Because we're you know, we in the United States are kind of hardheaded.

You know, I just can't be. Yes, we can be. So I can understand how all the data you have is probably absolutely true. And yet Americans, they don't like being told what to do. I get it. I really do. But look, you know, surely it's better than being locked up inside.

You know, don't we want to get back to work? Here's the thing. Sometimes we accept some little infringements. For example, I don't want to go out and sit on a restaurant seat where the previous customer was not wearing pants. So we do have laws in this country that say put on some pants before you go out.

You have a great sense of humor, Jeremy. Wearing pants is much less, you know, not wearing pants is much less dangerous than not wearing a mask. If you don't wear a mask, you could kill the people around you. So please wear one. Sometimes, though, Jeremy, it takes almost a tragedy.

It almost takes you being personally affected by it. Say, for example, my mother in law, unfortunately, I lost her to covid-19. So for me, you know, there are times when I take a mask, I try to be responsible. But I think that I would have a little bit more of a feeling like, oh, this is something that I should do for myself and for others.

But you know what? That mask isn't really protecting you that much, just a little bit. The main thing it's doing is protecting the people around you. So, you know, I have people in my family who have serious health risks. In fact, 80 percent of Americans, I think, are considered to have comorbidities, reasons that they'll be more at risk.

And the thing is, they're not safe unless all the people around them are wearing masks. So if we want the economy to really open up, getting rid of the lockdown won't be enough. We actually need people to feel safe. And that means people need to wear masks. Jeremy, thank you very much for joining us and having such an interesting conversation.