Now that wearing a mask in public is required in California and other states, we’re hearing all kinds of misinformation about the effectiveness of masks with viruses. My daughter Nicole (an ER doctor) sent me a post written by Dr. Sam Laucks, a surgeon, who definitively answered questions.
I’ve streamlined the Q&A here:
1. Do masks protect me from getting sick?
I have spent the past 39 years working in the field of surgery. For a significant part of that time, I have worn a mask. I have worked with hundreds (probably thousands) of colleagues during those years, who have also worn masks. Not a single one us of became ill, passed out or died from lack of oxygen. Not a single one of us became ill, passed out or died from breathing too much carbon dioxide. Not a single one us of became ill, passed out or died from rebreathing a little of our own exhaled air. Let’s begin here by putting those scare tactics to rest!
2. Wearing a mask for people with advanced lung diseases can make it difficult for them to breathe. What should they do?
It is true that some people, with advanced lung diseases, may be so fragile that a mask could make their already-tenuous breathing more difficult. If your lungs are that bad, you probably shouldn’t be going out in public at the present time anyway; the consequences if you are exposed to Covid-19 would likely be devastating.
3. Can’t viruses go right through the mask because they are so small? Masks keep viruses out just as well as a chain link fence keeps mosquitoes out,” some tell us.
It is true that individual virus particles can pass through the pores of a mask; however, viruses don’t move on their own. They do not fly across the room like a mosquito, wiggle through your mask like a worm, or fly up your nose like a gnat. The virus is essentially nothing more than a tiny blob of genetic material. Covid-19 travels in a CARRIER – the carrier is a fluid droplet- fluid droplets that you expel when you cough, sneeze, sing, laugh, talk or simply exhale. Most of your fluid droplets will be stopped from entering the air in the room if you are wearing a mask. Wearing a mask is a very efficient way to protect others if you are carrying the virus (even if you don’t know that you are infected). In addition, if someone else’s fluid droplets happen to land on your mask, many of them will not pass through. This gives the wearer some additional protection, too. But, the main reason to wear a mask is to PROTECT OTHERS. Even if you don’t care about yourself, wear your mask to protect your neighbors, co-workers and friends! A mask is certainly not 100% protective. However, it appears that the severity of Covid-19 infection is at least partially “dose-dependent.” In other words, the more virus particles that enter your body, the sicker you are likely to become. Why not decrease that volume if you can? “What have you got to lose?!”
4. Doesn’t a requirement or a request to wear a mask violate my constitutional rights?
You’re also not allowed to go into the grocery store if you are not wearing pants. You can’t yell “fire” in the Produce Department. You’re not allowed to urinate on the floor in the Frozen Food Section. Do you object to those restrictions? Rules, established for the common good, are component of a civilized society.
5. Aren’t masks uncomfortable?
Some would say that underwear or shoes can be uncomfortable, but we still wear them. (Actually, being on a ventilator is pretty darned uncomfortable, too!) Are masks really so bad that you can’t tolerate them, even if they will help keep others healthy?
6. Won’t people think I’m a snowflake or a wimp if I wear a mask?
I hope you have enough self-confidence to overcome that.
7. I never get sick; I’m not worried.
Well, then, wear a mask for the sake of the rest of us who are not so perfect!
8. Will wearing a mask help stop the COVID-19?
There is good evidence that masks make a real difference in diminishing the transmission of Covid-19. Please, for the sake of others (and for the sake of yourself), wear your mask when in public. It won’t kill you!
And, by the way, please be sure that BOTH your nose and mouth are covered! Recommendations around mask usage are confusing. The science isn’t. Evidence shows that masks are extremely effective to slow the coronavirus and may be the best tool available right now to fight it.
So there you have it! If a surgeon of 39 years believes that wearing a mask can protect us from spreading the coronavirus and dying from COVID-19, I’m in. I have a dozen masks that I’ve stashed everywhere so I always have a clean mask ready. This is a really easy thing for each of us to do.
Now that wearing a mask in public is required in California and other states, we’re hearing all kinds of misinformation about the effectiveness of masks with viruses. My daughter Nicole (an ER doctor) sent me a post written by Dr. Sam Laucks, a surgeon, who definitively answered questions.
I’ve streamlined the Q&A here:
1. Do masks protect me from getting sick?
I have spent the past 39 years working in the field of surgery. For a significant part of that time, I have worn a mask. I have worked with hundreds (probably thousands) of colleagues during those years, who have also worn masks. Not a single one us of became ill, passed out or died from lack of oxygen. Not a single one of us became ill, passed out or died from breathing too much carbon dioxide. Not a single one us of became ill, passed out or died from rebreathing a little of our own exhaled air. Let’s begin here by putting those scare tactics to rest!
2. Wearing a mask for people with advanced lung diseases can make it difficult for them to breathe. What should they do?
It is true that some people, with advanced lung diseases, may be so fragile that a mask could make their already-tenuous breathing more difficult. If your lungs are that bad, you probably shouldn’t be going out in public at the present time anyway; the consequences if you are exposed to Covid-19 would likely be devastating.
3. Can’t viruses go right through the mask because they are so small? Masks keep viruses out just as well as a chain link fence keeps mosquitoes out,” some tell us.
It is true that individual virus particles can pass through the pores of a mask; however, viruses don’t move on their own. They do not fly across the room like a mosquito, wiggle through your mask like a worm, or fly up your nose like a gnat. The virus is essentially nothing more than a tiny blob of genetic material. Covid-19 travels in a CARRIER – the carrier is a fluid droplet- fluid droplets that you expel when you cough, sneeze, sing, laugh, talk or simply exhale. Most of your fluid droplets will be stopped from entering the air in the room if you are wearing a mask. Wearing a mask is a very efficient way to protect others if you are carrying the virus (even if you don’t know that you are infected). In addition, if someone else’s fluid droplets happen to land on your mask, many of them will not pass through. This gives the wearer some additional protection, too. But, the main reason to wear a mask is to PROTECT OTHERS. Even if you don’t care about yourself, wear your mask to protect your neighbors, co-workers and friends! A mask is certainly not 100% protective. However, it appears that the severity of Covid-19 infection is at least partially “dose-dependent.” In other words, the more virus particles that enter your body, the sicker you are likely to become. Why not decrease that volume if you can? “What have you got to lose?!”
4. Doesn’t a requirement or a request to wear a mask violate my constitutional rights?
You’re also not allowed to go into the grocery store if you are not wearing pants. You can’t yell “fire” in the Produce Department. You’re not allowed to urinate on the floor in the Frozen Food Section. Do you object to those restrictions? Rules, established for the common good, are component of a civilized society.
5. Aren’t masks uncomfortable?
Some would say that underwear or shoes can be uncomfortable, but we still wear them. (Actually, being on a ventilator is pretty darned uncomfortable, too!) Are masks really so bad that you can’t tolerate them, even if they will help keep others healthy?
6. Won’t people think I’m a snowflake or a wimp if I wear a mask?
I hope you have enough self-confidence to overcome that.
7. I never get sick; I’m not worried.
Well, then, wear a mask for the sake of the rest of us who are not so perfect!
8. Will wearing a mask help stop the COVID-19?
There is good evidence that masks make a real difference in diminishing the transmission of Covid-19. Please, for the sake of others (and for the sake of yourself), wear your mask when in public. It won’t kill you!
And, by the way, please be sure that BOTH your nose and mouth are covered! Recommendations around mask usage are confusing. The science isn’t. Evidence shows that masks are extremely effective to slow the coronavirus and may be the best tool available right now to fight it.
So there you have it! If a surgeon of 39 years believes that wearing a mask can protect us from spreading the coronavirus and dying from COVID-19, I’m in. I have a dozen masks that I’ve stashed everywhere so I always have a clean mask ready. This is a really easy thing for each of us to do.
Just returned from Valley Medical Center after delivering our last batch of 3-layered cloth masks, plastic face shields, and bottles of wine. We set up our table at the end of their shifts to ensure that we would give the gift bags to all of the ER staff. Today’s shift ended at 7:00 am, so we were there at the crack of dawn!
With so little known about the coronavirus and what to expect with the shelter-in-place order, our doctors, nurses, techs and other frontline workers are stressed out. I loved watching their faces as they left the ER and walked over to get their gifts. Their smiles were all I needed to see as I sat in the RV watching from afar.
Thanks to Michele Roush for sewing masks, to my IT (who would like to remain anonymous) for making 3D face shields, and his girlfriend (also anonymous) for organizing the wine donations and discounts. Love how family and friends have stepped up to help, too. My sister Christine Grennier and my mother donated 500 surgical masks, and my aunt and uncle are planning to deliver a fancy meal and dessert to the ER staff.
Now we’re hoping to have enough supplies to do the same at Central Fire and AMR. These frontline healthcare workers help all people under stressful conditions. Want to help sew masks, print 3D shields, or donate funds? Come join us!
Want to protect yourself and your loved ones from getting COVID-19? Of course you do! Will you do anything in your power to do so? Then STOP HOARDING and SUPPORT first responders and healthcare professionals. My daughter is an ER doctor in Silicon Valley. As her mother, I want to protect her from the coronavirus and quite frankly, I wish she’d leave the profession.
She treated the first coronavirus patient in the Bay Area back in January, and she has been treating many patients since then. She and the selfless paramedics, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals are risking their lives to save ours. Stop and think about that for a moment. Would you give your life to save a stranger’s?
When I hear that people are hoarding masks, disinfectant wipes, and hand sanitizers, I feel outraged. People are hoarding so many masks that HOSPITALS DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MASKS TO PROTECT OUR FRONTLINE WORKERS. Selfish, stupid people.
If doctors, nurses, and first responders can’t protect themselves from very sick patients suffering from COVID-19 and other life-threatening diseases, our hospitals will close when they run out of staff. When doctors, nurses, and paramedics get sick, need to be quarantined, or die, WHERE WILL YOU GO WHEN YOU OR YOUR PARENTS GET SICK AND NEED HELP?
Listen to the healthcare professionals and help them set up and prepare for the biggest pandemic we have ever faced. Make sure they have access to masks, coronavirus test kits, and other life-saving devices and equipment they need NOW. Their voices are the ones you can trust and you need to support. They are not trying to win elections, make money on drugs or masks, or hide statistics from you.
When I hear that the government is DIVERTING FUNDS AWAY FROM PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF COVID-19, I feel even more outraged.
We need to ask why the Trump Administration has done the following:
- Submitted a budget that would:
- Eliminated the Pandemic Unit of the National Security Council [Source]
- Cut the Complex Crises Fund of $30 million that could deploy disease experts for this crisis. [Source]
- Forced CDC to slash the program to prevent global disease outbreak by 80% [Source]
- Downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19 by telling people it’s no worse than the flu and that they should go out to restaurants or go back to work when the doctors, WHO, and the rest of the world is quarantining. [Source] [Source] [Source] [Source] [Source]
- Postponed an annual intelligence report warning that the US is unprepared for a global pandemic. [Source]
- Asked for just $2.5 billion (half diverted from other programs) to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, when the congress instead authorized $8.3 billion in emergency funding. [Source]
- Made every step (albeit, delayed step) taken to contain the coronavirus all about Trump – it’s become his political campaign.
To take care of yourself and your loved ones, you need to make sure your healthcare professionals and frontline workers have all the personal protection, test kits, and equipment they need to save all of us. So stop hoarding, and start sharing. When you buy, buy for 2 weeks — not for 6 months. Pressure local, state, and federal agencies to protect our frontline workers and give them the tools they need to keep us safe. And, stay home no matter your age or vitality. Do your part to give our healthcare workers a chance to manage this pandemic.