Hello, everyone. Hello everybody and welcome to the show the big show the most important and critically acclaimed podcast is recorded in our Hemi powered coup. That's right, we're driving to the Hemi studio today. The old Chrysler 300 CSR T.
And away we go. And away we go. We're talking today about a topic that's been on a lot of discussion lately, because it's about masks masks and their use. I do have an article that I think I may refurbish a little bit and put on the front page, again, of our websites that I wrote about masks, when to use which kinds but of course, when to use which is only as relevant if you could actually get what kind, you know, get the masks. So we're not talking today about the gas masks you'd use if somebody tipped over a tank of ammonia near you. How are they most effective when worn by the person who's actually got the thing they're trying not to spread. They're better at catching the little tiny little micro spit droplets as what they are, that are exhaled during normal, normal breathing to a small extent, speech to a larger extent, coughing and singing to a pretty good extent. And sneezing. They're expelled like crazy. They catch all those things.
We're not even really talking about the end 95 masks, which are kind of made out of unobtainium right now. So we can talk a little bit about them because they do have a special place and there is a specific purpose for them. And we have a box of them. In fact, we do have a box of preppers.
Today we're talking about the garden variety particulate filter masks, such as are used in general clinical work and the cloth versions that a lot of people are wearing now to reduce COVID transmissions.
Are they effective? And will Okay, I can't even come out and say some of the idiotic stuff I've read about masks this last month. Or let's just let's just put to rest some idiotic statements about masks. Man, go ahead. You're not going to oxygen deprived yourself by wearing a surgical mask or a Air permeable mask of any kind. Now if you make a mask out of cellophane Yeah, maybe you could do that.
Not recommended not recommended not try this at home use
bags that say this bag is not a toy.
That means don't make a mask out of it either.
Sadly I have experienced when I was a little kid I had a bag a plastic bag with my mink coats in them. What are mink coats? That's an entirely different story. Meat goes with the coolest thing ever. And you'll just have to Google it. Because you unless you were the Japan in the 60s, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Okay, anyway, but I kept my Migos in this plastic bag and it was during the time when the Apollo missions were going on. So I thought it'd be an astronaut and put this plastic bag over my head. That was about a stronger weapon is I ever got his mom saw that and it was go time on my hind And
you're motivated not to, but I never put
a plastic bag over my head again. So now they put warning labels. Okay, for that warning label. It's me. It's my fault. Somebody heard that I did it and they said, Oh, I'm stupid. Spaceman and Nico's bag. Anyway,
and it's going to be a four year old who sometimes somehow magically knows how to read completely and reads the warning on the bag and doesn't do it.
Surprisingly, The masks they make for doctors and nurses to use in surgery, not cellophane or not me. Yeah, there are air permeable.
That is the the real reality check here. First, that they were the metal, and why do they wear them. So that stuff they're breathing doesn't get into the wounds they're opening. And second, they're doing highly technical work for hours and hours on end. In what are actually really some challenging conditions because I don't know if you've ever been in a surgical suite, but it's dead hot. Under those lights,
even though it's cold as heck, yeah. Yeah. The actual lights itself get really hot.
Yeah. And the surgeons and scrub nurses and things have to stand, often very still for lots of hours on end to do that. It's and they're doing, you know, they have to be on top of their game because nobody inside is just like the models and nobody's ever read the script, things go wrong a lot. Or
they get in there and they're like, oh, that did not show up on the MRI. Yeah, I'm here. I'm fixing that while we're here. That kind of stuff. So long story short during these mass for hours and hours and hours, and they don't
fall over kaboom, doing really tricky work and it's fine. So there's some evidence right there that these guys are fine. Are you really breathing your co2 not to any meaningful level? If you were, your breathing would speed up considerably like you do when you're sprinting, you breathe, you have a lot higher co2 concentration in your lungs after a sprint than you do when you've been wearing a mask for hours and your breathing pattern shows that. And if you want to Google all the people were on the oxygen sensors because you don't believe me that they keep the oxygen plenty high. Fine,
unless you have an oxygen sensor like ours, which always shows low on everybody. Because ours is kind of a piece of
Well, yeah,
anyway, I'm pressing right along. I'll tell you one thing. The whole I just can't breathe with a mask on is really, it makes me feel uncomfortable for many reasons. And I don't wanna Yeah, that's what it really is. Yeah, it's hotter. It is. Yeah. It's a little stuffy it is yeah, you look like a dork. That's true. Um, you but you look like a smart dork.
You look I consider a dork. Okay, so the other half of it. Do they work to help reduce to stop disease transmission? Stop it. No, they're not going to stop it. Some error gets around the edges of the mask. Are they going to reduce it? Yeah. Are they going to reduce it by a lot? Yeah. They don't catch every single one of them, but they catch the vast majority of them. Which means they both reduce transmit the amount of transmissions to other people. And they reduce the severity of transmissions. Because dose matters. You hear about, oh, yeah, she tested positive, but she had no symptoms, or she tested positive and she died of it. The difference between those two things might be the immune status of the person, but it also just might be the dose. The higher the dose, the more rapidly the virus multiplies and the more damage it does in the meantime, the
less the less opportunity your immune system has to fight the good fight. Now, for a lot of people up until this point in time, the surgical masks have kind of been moved, because you just couldn't get them or they were prohibited. tively expensive, ridiculously expensive as of today, and I'm going to go ahead and post this on July 4 or July 3. I'll post this when we get home. You can get them for $4 and 99 cents for 10, which is still ridiculously priced but at Harbor Freight, and they're not short on them, at least in our part of the reason or part of the world are not sure you can go to harbor freight and get a package of 10. I do think they limit these to like three packages. But still you can get them and they're limiting them kind of keeps them available. Now you can if you long you don't slobber these things up, you can reuse them and here's saltiest trick for reusing them. You take them off when you're done with them. I'll come back to that. You take them off when you're done with them. And you let them hang where the sunshine will shine. on them because this virus does not like sunshine and the the UV rays will sanitize the mask over time. Now we read a report that you can sanitize and 95 masks by putting them into a homemade autoclave and what we mean by that is if you got one of those instant pots, well is to pot pressure cookers. You can sanitize your, your 95 Why you probably sanitize all your masks. But we only know that the end 95 will hold up. I can't imagine these wouldn't hold up to it these paper masks I can't imagine where that would be a problem. But we know you can do that. So you could reuse your math. These are not one time use masks necessarily. But of course you should. One thing that you know people will will mock people will make fun of people wearing masks in their car and will you the person do it well that person Maybe just going from one stop to another stop. And you don't want to be taking your mask on and off, and on and off, because you're just making your risk of exposure much higher as you're doing that. So if you're going to be doing a two, two second or two minutes, stop this, you know, going on to the next let's just leave your mask on until you're done. And then when you take your mask off, of course, then you want to use your, your stuff, your hand stuff.
Yeah, I was having a conversation with somebody once and they started sneering at people who wear their masks in their car. And I'm like, I'm one of those people. Because the way I was taught mask use in a more medical setting, actually, research setting actually. And the rule is you don't touch the mask to take it off until you can wash your hands right afterward. So I'd stop in at a store I'd put the mask and I'd pick up my stuff I'd go to drive home and I'd leave the mask on till I got Inside could take off my take off the mask immediately wash the hands. So
yeah. So that's the actual right way. And that's why some people aren't doing it, then I remember some people are a lot more in danger from this thing than you might be, they may have heart problems. They may be a cancer survivor. They may be on chemo, you don't know.
There's also a small but real apparently subset of people without indications of serious problems that develop serious problems. It's not common for people without underlying conditions to have serious complications, but it's happening. And when enough people get it, the numbers of those people add up. So it's a thing. So most effective when worn by the person who's got it, who may or may not have symptoms. From the best data, I could see there's lots of studies out there, I try and filter mine by the quality of the people putting it out. And the quality of the journals, which a lot of people wouldn't know off the top of their head. The best I've seen was about 90% reduction of trends of release of inhalable particles to a partner standing near you, if you're wearing it. But if the other person is breathing at all in your direction, and you're wearing a mask, it cuts it by at least 60. And that is real nificant useful.
That's real. Yeah. And not only cuts your risk, but it cuts down the amount of even if someone does get through it cuts down the amount of what gets through.
Yeah, and if you do the math, if both people are wearing a mask, one has reduced the transmission by 90%. And then the inhaler has reduced the that 10% by another 60%. You're down to something like a 4% transmission, as opposed to just standing there talking to each other face to face. And that's real invaluable. So I hate to see it politicized.
Right, because it's just ridiculous. And the whole idea that I hate to see people mocking others for take care of themselves. I mean, if somebody if somebody is wearing a mask before COVID, would you mock them?
No. You think, Oh my, that person's on chemo or
something? Yeah, that person is immunosuppressed or something. Or that person's an oriental person for whom wearing a mask during flu season is normal. Yeah, they were ill people do this all the time. It is the norm in Japanese culture and South Korean culture. It's the norm.
It's considered the polite thing to do to not help spread the disease through the community. Because, you know, it's not only the COVID thing, it's gonna be effective. Or all the other respiratory linked to viruses that we pass around among ourselves. And it even helps reduce transmission of the stuff that you transfer by touch. Because you touch face less. Just, if you're wearing the thing, put it over your nose and mouth and leave it there. Wash your hands.
There's no point if you're, you know, unless you put it over your mouth and nose. Don't even put it on. I mean, just don't waste your time. Don't waste my my time mocking you for doing that because I will mock you. If I see that. That's one way I will mock you if you see that. So I've been to two fast food restaurants where they are requiring their employees to wear masks. I've been through a good Mickey D's pick up their drinks because they're only 99 cents and I'm a cheap sucker. And, you know, they'll have a mascot around their chins You know, that's on management. That's on management. Yeah. The thing So somebody who should be
trained, it's not a political statement. It's really not saying that you do or do not think this is a major serious problem that everybody needs to worry about. It's not saying you do or do not think any political scheme should or should not be put into action. All it says to me is, Hey, I know this virus is out there. And I know that there are a subset of people who have really bad consequences if they get it. And I know that if I'm wearing a mask I'm not gonna give it to and that is enough reason for me. It looks to me like consideration, not like a political statement.
I'll look it in another another way to is one of the things that I'm saying when I wear a mask is also I don't trust these other people. Let me explain how many times you been to the, to the in the in the bathroom, a public place and see somebody come out of the stall and just walk straight out. Please walk, they don't wash their hands at all, you know, and the walk over and they'll grab the door of the bathroom. And they'll open it up after Yeah, there's a they might have been they're dropping a walk you don't know. Probably. That's what it's for. And they're doing this stuff and you're just like not not touching that thing.
Yeah, I'm not a germaphobe I'm not either.
That's why we restaurants, we carry our little hand cleaner things with us because we don't know. You know, and we trust people who work at restaurants, to wash their hands and to be wearing appropriate things so they will get hair in the food and stuff like that. But we protect ourselves. Anyway. With handstands tires and stuff like that, because we just can't trust everybody. And this is, you know,
the concept is one from medicine called universal precautions. You treat every sample as it's as if you know it's infected. Because sooner or later, you'll be right. And you don't know when.
And my next question is, and this is for everybody of all political and political persuasions and outlooks. How well do you trust that stranger standing next to you? How well do you trust them? If you trust them implicitly not to be out when they're sick?
Or when they're infected and don't know
it? Or when they're infected? No, no? Yes. Right. Because a lot of people are infected. No, no, you trust them to not have it. Then you know, maybe. Jada resync case you're here. I don't I don't trust other people. I take care of myself. And that's what meringue masks are. wearing masks are our way of preparing ourselves to be as protected as possible. And we'd like to encourage people to think the same way. This is what we can do to protect ourselves. Because we can't stop going to the grocery store entirely.
And our neighbors, honestly, I'm not that worried about getting this, but that's me. And I wear it anyway. Because I don't want to give it to anybody.
Yeah, we have a good article on 3d one that I highly recommend you read if you have questions of what all this stuff is for. I was written by a brilliant doctor, friend of ours, who, frankly, you know, says she said, You know, this is for grandma. We're protecting grandma here. We're not protecting ourselves. So anyway, time to go. We're at the grocery store. So we're gonna go in put on our masks. Going to the grocery store. That's the thing. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai