 What's up you guys? Raeep Derrazy here and today I want to get into the topic of face masks. There's a lot of information being presented in the media and online about face masks and yet I continue to wear one. Here are some examples of what you can find on the news and on online. The CDC says wearing a face mask to protect yourself from this new coronavirus is actually not recommended. Is that masks are really not necessary and they may actually be unhelpful. If you do not have any respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose you do not need to wear a medical mask. As we said in the United States the risk to any individual American is extremely low. As you can see from those clips there's an overall consensus that masks are not advised for those of us who are not sick and who are not frontline healthcare workers. There are a number of arguments being presented as to why this is the case. We have the general blanket argument that it's not effective against the virus coronavirus COVID-19. We have the argument that people will wear them incorrectly that it only covers the mouth and the nose not the eyes that we are now practicing social distancing so the need for a mask becomes irrelevant. Also that people when wearing a mask will think that they are more protected than they are and therefore be more lackadaisical in other areas such as not worrying so much about being around other people and not practicing social isolation or not worrying about touching and all of that as much. And the argument that it should only be worn by those who are sick. I'm sure there are more arguments but those are the main ones that I picked up on. First of all is it ineffective against the virus? In order to answer that question we have to first differentiate between different kinds of masks. There are in fact different kinds of masks. There are surgical masks and 95 masks and 99 masks, gas masks, painters masks. There are so many different kinds of masks. So to say in general that masks are ineffective against the virus is irresponsible it's not a fully honest answer. It's an oversimplified not helpful answer. So regular surgical masks that you generally see people wearing are helpful against larger droplets from being filtered through. They do not have as stringent of filter standards as an N95 or N89 mask and specifically when concerning N95 respirators they do go into that on the CDC website when it comes to its effectiveness against COVID-19. So let's see on the CDC website it says CDC does not recommend the routine use of respirators outside of workplace settings in the community. Most often spread of respiratory viruses from person to person happens among close contacts within six feet. Recommending avoiding people who are sick, avoiding touching your nose or your eyes, covering cough and sneeze with a tissue. People who are sick should stay home and not go into crowded places or visit people in hospitals. This doesn't account for why they don't recommend respirators. It just says alternatively what one should do instead of using a respirator. So a respirator is a personal protective device that is worn on the face or head and covers at least the nose and mouth. A respirator is used to reduce the wearer's risk of inhaling hazardous airborne particles including infectious agents, gases or vapors. What is an N95 filtering facepiece respirator? An N95 FFR is a type of respirator which removes particles from the air that are breathed through it. These respirators filter out at least 95% of very small 0.3 micron particles. N95 FFRs are capable of filtering out all types of particles including bacteria and viruses. When properly fitted and worn, minimal leakage occurs around edges of the respirator when the user inhales. This means almost all of the air is directed through the filter area. So that is kind of a little bit of a rundown on what an N95 respirator is. An N99 respirator basically filters out even more of these small particles so I'm not really going to get into that but this is you know an important distinction from just a surgical mask versus a respirator. I think that distinction is important to make when talking about masks and the efficacy against viruses in COVID-19. If you want I'll have the link in the info box below the video and you can look at the CDC website and check the details. There's more information about it but even just a cursory glance at the CDC's website shows that in fact at least an N95 respirator is effective against protecting people from viruses and bacteria that are airborne or that are temporarily airborne from droplets. And then the next argument, well people may wear them incorrectly. This is very true. People may wear them incorrectly. However I don't think that is a reason to say that people shouldn't wear them. The argument is that if there are gaps between the mask and skin then that's letting in some amount of air and that air might have particles of virus in water droplets in it and then you would inhale it and then that would bypass the mask and you would become infected. Rendering the mask ineffective. Or people who have facial hair and might present the same issue and cause gaps where air can also enter past the mask. Again the idea that someone might incorrectly wear the mask to me is not an argument to deter people from wearing masks or to say that they are ineffective for that reason. If anything this would be a reason to help educate people on how to properly wear a mask and how to ensure that it's snug against the skin and that you put it on right and you take it off right and all of that. So here's an analogy and I know it's not a perfect analogy but it's just one that popped in my head and I thought was um just kind of funny to kind of compare to that but it's like it's the idea of if people were presenting the argument well we want to wear condoms to protect ourselves from viruses, bacterial infections, STIs as it were and then health professionals being like well we don't encourage condoms use we just encourage you know isolation from each other aka abstinence because people might wear condoms incorrectly they might put it on wrong. You might roll it the wrong way so that the lube's on the inside and you might not leave the little air pocket on the end of the condom and either of those things could cause it to break and if it breaks well then now you're exposed and this whole time you thought you were protected and really you were just putting yourself at risk and if you wear a condom and you think you're protected well you might start doing other things in your sexual activity that puts you at more at risk to STIs that you wouldn't do otherwise so we just say no condoms. That's kind of what it feels like to me or or even better only those people who are exhibiting symptoms of an STI infection or know that they're infected should wear a condom however we don't have enough tests for people to test and actually see if they are infected so yeah go with that though that'll help I mean how many people that you know are going around having sex and don't know that they have infections and with that logic would be like well I don't know so I don't have any symptoms so I'm just not gonna I don't need to wear a condom it's it's not for me rather than maybe providing more condoms to people you see where I'm going with this right now granted I understand there is a shortage and I will address that but but just overall as a stream of logic in isolation to make that argument is just kind of ridiculous to me what the hell are we thinking okay move it on I've heard the argument that well you know the mask covers the mouth and the nose but it doesn't cover your eyes droplets could just as well go in your eyes so there's really no point wearing a mask just because it covers two of the three orifices on your face doesn't mean that you should just nix it all together what where's the where's the rationality in that how how does that make sense please somebody explain it to me well it doesn't fully protect you so then you might as well just have no protection on your face or you could just get something to cover your eyes and then that would solve that problem too there's more there's more than one solution than just like oh well there goes that oh that's gonna get my eyes so and here's another little silly analogy that just kind of is like an all-or-nothing mentality which I don't agree with and I heard this a lot growing up and this is more like health fitness related and it's like shaming people for going to say mcdonald's and then getting that supersized fries and that double quarter pounder and then getting a diet coke and I remember distinctly like being with people and they witnessed that in this person and saying oh look at that person oh really really you're gonna get a supersized fries and a double quarter pounder with cheese and then you're gonna get a diet coke how dumb is that that's dumb just get the coke why are you trying to pretend like you're trying to be healthy i'm gonna get a diet coke that's stupid and that rationale that logic is just so nonsensical because so maybe this person got a combo meal which is the food alone is 1200 calories or more are they obligated to add another two 300 calories in a drink kudos to that person for saving at least that 200 300 extra calories in their drink and it shouldn't be like oh well you're either gonna be completely healthy or you're just gonna like shove butter down your throat choose your battles and if you can cover two of the three orifices on your face not the eyes great do it and as far as social distancing and it being irrelevant now because we're all staying you know so many feet apart just last night i took duke out for a walk i put my mask on and you know logic would say oh well i'm gonna take him out to walk and to go to the bathroom i'm not going to be near people so who cares i shouldn't i'm not going to be within six feet it doesn't matter but you know caution prevailed i took him out and as i was cleaning up his do-do i heard someone coughing and that person happened to be directly above me in the first floor balcony of the building that i was standing right in front of and droplets of their saliva were raining down on me and if i was someone just walking around breathing in air and if that person's sick and those droplets are coming down i'm inhaling that without a doubt on that note also it's not just about breathing in stuff literally wearing a face mask is a deterrent from touching your face there were plenty of times while wearing the mask where i had an itch i instinctively just because i touched my face all the time subconsciously i don't i'm not even aware of it and i wanted to itch and then i just because i could feel the mask you know pressing against my skin i i go uh nah i'm wearing a mask i couldn't even itch it if i wanted to and i shouldn't and that's kind of part of it and i think that's helpful and that if you do instinctively you're on the phone you're talking to someone you're you're fumbling with something uh you're you know your child's running you got your dog or whatever and you just have an itch and you just instinctively want to go and scratch well now you have a barrier there the mask preventing you from doing that so to say that we are socially distancing and therefore it's irrelevant is just not not the case there are so many instances where it still matters the next argument people may think they are protected when in fact they are not so the idea that they have the false sense of security when they're wearing a mask so they might be like oh you know officials are saying do not gather written groups you know more than 10 or whatever it may be maybe just stay home and then people might have masks and say oh we're wearing masks so it's okay we can still like have our little saturday night get together and play cards and whatever it is because they have the masks they have this false sense of protection or that as a result of wearing the mask they might be okay with hugging and touching more than they would otherwise because they feel oh you know we covered that we're not touching our own face so there there aren't going to be any like virus on our hands so it's okay rather than assume that people are going to make that mistake and they very well might the psychology might behind it might encourage people to be a little bit more lax today's goal about those things when they have a mask on their face we can counteract that psychology by educating by creating campaigns all these times in these press briefings and in conferences when we're saying no masks are infected no no no they're don't don't bother don't worry about it that's silly don't don't wear the masks it's not gonna help instead of doing that we could say yeah masks are effective however the tendency will be to want to interact more and think that we have a sense of safety and caution and instead we should realize that we still have to practice these other things because the masks are effective in conjunction with all of these other practices that we're putting into effect to stop the pandemic that's the way we should handle it not by downplaying the effectiveness of masks that's just not right and then the last argument that i really want to touch on is that it only should be worn by those who are sick okay only people who are sick let's review the facts who are people that are infected with coronavirus how do we know well they will have flu like symptoms cool great we'll look out for that people with temperatures um body aches stuff like that got it great okay oh and um they might also have cold like symptoms only okay so sore throat coughs got it great so we got flu like symptoms cold symptoms great got it also a large percentage of people are completely asymptomatic oh okay okay so um that that that could be everyone okay well that's okay we'll we'll just we'll just go get a test oh i can't get tested oh because there's not enough that makes it a little a little difficult right those people that aren't asymptomatic that might get symptoms it might take them five days before they actually do get symptoms do you see what i'm getting at here so only people that are sick well theoretically then that means everyone because we don't know who is sick and who isn't there's no way to know for sure unless you get a test can i gotta name it no all this information altogether just isn't making sense it's not adding up it's leaving us confused and like in this catch 22 it's a literal catch 22 it hurts my head to think about it if we don't know who's sick and who's not so we don't know who should be wearing a mask and who shouldn't and if our goal is to protect the people who are most at risk the elderly by and large the immunocompromised it is our responsibility then to wear the mask to protect them right because we could be asymptomatic those people who aren't wearing masks because they're asymptomatic and have a high viral load and are sick and spreading it to possibly people who are elderly or immunocompromised that's a big scary thing unfortunately we do have measures like distancing social distancing but not all the time we can't do that 24 seven constantly when we need to go to the grocery store and we need to go to the stores and we need to there there are times when we're just going to interact do snoring here he stopped because i think you heard he heard me call his name why are you such a creeper huh how you know i'm talking about you so if you're wondering why the couch is right here like this it's because i had the couch by the tv like normal and you got so tired of me sitting here at the computer desk that he was whining constantly because he likes to be as near to me as possible so i finally just moved the whole dang couch right here so that you can be like literally within two feet and he's been totally happy ever since anyway where was i when you gotta go to the grocery store yeah you might be socially distanced while you're waiting in line outside of the grocery store but when you're in those grocery aisles and you're passing by each other and stuff like that social distancing is great but it's it's not feasible to be doing that at all times so in those instances where we know we're not going to be that far apart from other people it's a good idea to have a mask i would say taking a look at all these arguments and seeing how irrational and nonsensical so much of this is it begs the question okay then why are these intelligent smart people making these arguments if it really doesn't add up if one plus one doesn't really equal three like what's going on here what's the real motive here and from my perspective it seems like there's a couple of things going on here it seems like our government has been very very poorly able to acknowledge responsibility for a lot of things related to what's going on especially the fact that we do have a severe shortage of masks and no one's really taken responsibility for that or owned that the government surely is not addressing the fact that we were not prepared as we should be there should be masks available to everyone in the us especially healthcare workers and we should have an abundance of supply for them for instances like the one that we're in now and we just we were woefully under prepared not just with masks with medical supplies in general and beds and staffing and all of it all of it's a mess everybody's refusing to take responsibility it's embarrassing to acknowledge that you just didn't do the basics but it's also our government trying to retain credibility and that's really important during some a time like this of emergency national emergency crisis to have the credibility and the authority to say this is what you need to do you need to do it now and it's coming from a credible source so do it if they start showing all these cracks in the facade and the foundation then people might begin questioning their ineptitude and that would hurt their credibility another component I think is the fact that there is a severe shortage and if they were to announce to everybody hey yeah these masks will help to an extent if you wear them properly if you follow all these other guidelines they will add an extra layer of protection then everybody's gonna run out and try to get them and then realize oh crap like there's no masks which can cause hysteria and panic and everybody's like oh you're I'm not protecting it like ah I'm gonna get it now I don't have a mask and that's not necessarily a case there's a lot that can be done to protect a mask is just another tool it's another layer of protection but to do without doesn't mean that you're not protected and that you can't do things to protect yourself that's just not the case and that's not the argument that I'm making what I'm saying is that I understand how they're trying to avoid panic in that sense or adding to panic as it were the third reason I feel is that we gotta make sure that frontline healthcare workers have masks if everybody's running out of getting masks and there's not enough to go around then the people who needed the most are not going to have it and these are people who are working directly in close proximity in close contact with patients constantly throughout the day these people are our heroes right now these people are on the frontline doing amazing work life-saving work tough stuff putting themselves at risk putting their lives at risk I mean there are doctors going into the hospital into ICU I know one has died the one from Wuhan who was the whistleblower to begin with passed from the virus I mean this is a very serious threat especially for healthcare workers so for them to not get the respirators the mask the protection that they need is just a travesty I understand that for sure but my argument is let's be honest and real and transparent about that let's give the American public a little bit more credit that we don't need to be treated like we're dumb that we don't need to be treated like we're all a bunch of wild savage animals who are going to go panic buying and get into fights in the grocery stores like some people are doing like some people do do with toilet paper and canned foods and the like I think that information transparency honesty education in the long term those things went out by far and those things are very strong they also improve credibility and trust in the government if we're not being fully honest or being dishonest or misinforming all these conspiracy theories that we're seeing crop up everywhere and the distrust and oh it's man-made or you know it was planted you're just adding fuel to that fire you're allowing that to proliferate it's dangerous especially in the time of social media where things move so fast and there's not enough checks there's not enough fact checking there's not political fact can't be checked in every single tweet and facebook story and instagram ad that's being run around claiming that silver is going to cure your covet 19 what we need is reliable sources that we can trust and trust means being honest and transparent and giving the whole scenario not dumbing it down thinking that we can't handle check out this video that was posted by the who on how to put a face mask on properly it's short this is how you should wear a mask before touching the mask clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water inspect the mask for tears or holes verifying which side is the top this is where the metal piece is then identify the inside of the mask which is usually the white side then fit the mask on your face pinch the metal strip or stiff edge so it holds to the shape of your nose adjust the mask over your face covering your mouth and chin making sure there are no gaps between your face and the mask do not touch the front of the mask while using it to avoid contamination if you accidentally touch it clean your hands to take off the mask remove the elastics from behind without touching the front and keep it away from your face discard the mask immediately in a closed bin and clean your hands you see how simple that was you see how easy it was to explain that that's not going to take out much airtime instead of at these press conferences talking about how ineffective face masks are why don't you talk about how to put one on correctly if you're worried about people putting it on incorrectly that's so simple and so quick and so easy to do if all these media outlets were sharing that information it would be common knowledge and people would be sharing it with their loved ones with their friends this is how you do it correctly make sure you do it this way instead of saying oh no no no the american public they don't know how to put a mask on they don't know how to fit it they're incompetent they're not going to be able to do it we're going to rule out masks don't take away that layer of protection it's not worth it but let's have a little more faith in each other and i know that's hard especially these times we see so many negative stories and and so many examples of human ineptitude and irrationality because those are the stories that are going to grab the most attention they're the most controversial so those are the ones that we're going to see the most what we don't see as much are the things that we as humans are doing proactively to help each other as a community to be there for each other all these hiv patients who are freely giving up their excess drugs in hopes that it might help patients in china who have COVID-19 which is in reference to another video that i did of a possible COVID-19 cure and while that that effort might be to an end that doesn't result in anything meaningful my point is that people are willing to sacrifice and to give up and to do things for others during this time even though it seems like you know hope and faith in humanity is just gone it's obliterated it's not there's still plenty of good people and once some good people start proactively starting positive movements then a lot of other people tend to jump in they're just waiting for for someone to to spark it just like the grocery stores when we realized wait a minute you know elderly people and people who are immune compromised are having a hard time getting the food that they need at grocery stores all of a sudden now you're seeing people say hey hey grocery stores like let's give the first hour the first two hours to the elderly to the immune compromise let's do that let's make that sacrifice together as a community to benefit this at-risk population people are saying yeah we're kind of panic buying but for the greater good we're willing to do this and it wasn't mandated by the government it's not being mandated it was because of common good and I think common good can also be applied to the face masks shortage I just think we just need to be honest and transparent and communicate how important it is that we protect and safeguard our healthcare frontline workers the way that we now look at the military and we you know look after our military and thank them for their service through education and information appreciate the work that they are doing on our behalf in that same way we can educate and create this same sentiment towards healthcare workers so that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons I do own two and 95 masks that I use I did purchase these masks well before it became a panic buy and it's just something that I wanted to have on hand as an emergency so it's not something that I did in spite of a need for healthcare workers it's not something that I will pursue now I will not try to get um any of these masks now because I know that it's needed for it's crucially needed for healthcare and for people who are really really sick right now and I encourage you to do the same don't freak out because of this video and don't think that oh rave's saying it's effective so that I have to get one or otherwise I'll get sick that's not what I'm saying at all I'm just saying that we need to ensure that um we're spreading information effectively and being honest and transparent but I think it's important that we all recognize for the right reason that we should reserve the masks now for these healthcare professionals and the die are sick and with that I will wrap up this video I know this was a long-winded one but I just have been so pent up about this I needed to like get this out and share this all right that sums up my video guys I hope you enjoyed it I hope this sparked at least some thoughts on the issue and maybe clarified some things I think we're capable of a lot more than we are given credit for please like this video if you liked it subscribe if you haven't already I will continue to be making more videos I don't know how many more I'll be making on COVID-19 but definitely more videos with thoughtful matter to come all right you guys I will talk to you soon peace