Col Todd Fredricks, the West Virginia National Guard State Surgeon, and Col Mark McDaniel, the West Virginia Air National Guard Flight Surgeon, discuss the need and appropriate use of face covering.
Transcript
[Man] I’ve got my face mask, that’s the important thing, right? I should have.
We wear masks because one of the things we do know about COVID-19 is that droplet spread or the little bits of mucous and stuff that we normally spit out when we talk, or laugh, or cough is a primary way that the disease is transmitted. When we wear masks, we’re really protecting other people. We’re protecting them from our own droplets, which is why our own masks are really important. It’s also why it’s important that everybody wears a mask because I am protecting you, but if you’re not wearing a mask, I have very little protection from your droplets that get through with this. But together, if we both wear masks, we have nearly perfect protection against droplet spread.
We probably need to wear face masks anytime we’re in close proximity to other people that may be contagious. And you can transmit the virus before you have the symptoms.
Some people say, “Well, once I have a mask, “do I need to keep the six foot distance?” Effectively, no. For a person that doesn’t have symptoms, that’s not actively coughing, if both of you are wearing a mask, you can sit at a desk and have a conversation and do work together, but prevention’s a good thing and if you don’t have to, don’t. Spread yourself out a little bit further than you normally would. One thing that people find difficult in American society is that our comfort distance in a conversation is about three feet. Six feet is a long, noticeable difference from that and so it takes time to adjust to that, but again, with both of you wearing masks, neither one of you actively coughing, you’re probably pretty safe to have working relationship under six feet. (light music) In the National Guard community, most of us are pretty healthy. There are some people, however, that have difficult times with face masks either because they’re afraid of confined spaces, they’re claustrophobic, they have a bit of anxiety with something on their face, for people who have lung disease, maybe some of our civilians that have respiratory problems, that might be a difficult proposition. And in this case, we need to make accommodation for them. Try to get them into a workspace where they can be next to an open window where there’s good airflow blowing through. Space them away from people greater than six feet, preferably 10 feet, but we don’t wanna exclude our members who can’t wear a mask, we just wanna make sure that we’re protecting them from our droplets. And, like I said in the past, six feet is a distance that’s been chosen to be where most of the droplets will fall, but if you really wanna be safe for those who can’t wear a mask, space it out to 10 feet and you’re gonna do as much as you probably can in a room to protect them from any transmission. Medical grade masks are interesting. They are FDA approved. This is a medical grade mask. But, this is still a simple mask. These masks are worn by surgeons all over the world in the United States for decades and they are purely to stop our droplets from getting to a patient. Patients in surgery are sterilized. They’re cleaned down with very effective disinfectants, they’re draped with sterile drapes. So, the reason why these are worn is not to protect me from the patient, it’s to protect the patient from me. The CDC understands this and they understand that because droplets are a way that COVID-19 is transmitted, that much like a surgeon in an O.R., catching those last coughs or even normal conversation is very effective with this. Now, it turns out, that simple masks, usually made with at least two, if not better, three layers of densely woven cotton, some people use the term tea towel material, is also very effective at catching droplets. And so, wearing a simple mask, if both people are wearing them that completely cover the face and the chin, allow for a cough to be caught, is the reason why the CDC is recommending their use. That came about because the reality is is that when this disease hit, we simply didn’t have enough materials to go to everyone. And so, some papers that were written about 20 years ago, for influenza, were referenced and it turns out that they had researched those materials and out of that came the recommendation of dense T-shirt material, three layers, covering the face, nose, mouth and under the chin. And that’s how we got the simple mask. I wore one every day in the clinic in the hospital. I do have access to these, but I try to reduce my use of them, but I feel perfectly safe around patients, especially with a face shield down dealing with patients even in a cloth mask. Remember, these are not patients who we know have COVID-19, that would be a different type of mask that’s more sophisticated then a simple surgical mask or a homemade cloth mask.
Well sure, if someone’s sick, and we can transmit the virus before we have the symptoms of the virus. So, wearing a face mask now is to help prevent that transmission so we have a healthy force. Utilizing social distancing, wearing the face mask when around others, proper hand washing, those kind of things will keep the force protection, keep a healthy force.
With very few exceptions, and these are people who have severe lung disease, wearing a mask does not cause you harm. These masks are actually very permeable. This is why we don’t wear a simple mask in a unit with COVID patients. We wear something called an N95. It’s more difficult to breathe through an N95 is because it’s not designed to keep my droplets away from the patient, it’s designed to keep the patient’s virus from me. Again, like I’ve said before, simple masks are made to keep your droplets from them. And so, they’re built so you can breathe, they’re just designed to catch those big droplets. And so, when you read stuff on the internet, it’s easy to say this, it’s hard to get you to believe it, but every day all the doctors, public health officers, leadership of the West Virginia National Guard, pours over data looking for the best recommendations we can find, not just for the United States, but for the globe to make sure that we’re giving good recommendations. One of the principle jobs of the TAG is to protect the force and make sure they’re ready for their mission. And so, to advise that you wear a mask is absolutely the best recommendation we can give that will not put you in danger, but allow you to complete your mission. (light music) There is no specific time limit for face wear. There are doctors who wear masks like this for 12 hours in surgery and they don’t change ’em. I do have one concern that you should be aware of and that is, if you’re wearing a cloth mask, there is some information to suggest that if it gets wet with normal breathing, that you should have a spare that’s dry. The reason why is because moisture allows virus to travel and so it’s possible that the moisture on the inside of that mask allow a virus to travel to the outside and then you could touch it, or touch something else and someone could get infected. So, aside from just normal respiration moisture, and the solution for that is to change your mask through the day so that you wear a dry one, there is no danger for extended wear of masks. (light music) Cloth masks should be cleaned after every use preferably. So, if you’re in close confines and you have the opportunity, you should take your mask home and with your normal laundry, put it in the washer, wash it, let it dry, take it back to work. In the case of an IDT period where you have to go to drill, I think one solution is just to allow it to dry normally and go ahead and rewear it. I would have no problem personally doing that if I couldn’t get to laundry, but certainly after drill if you take your mask home, you should put it in the laundry, wash it, and have it ready for the next drill period or AT that you’re gonna engage in. COVID-19 presents a tremendous challenge to the United States. Anybody that reads anything knows that. This is a really difficult time for this country. I like to tell people that this flag doesn’t specify who I’m charged to protect, it’s all Americans. You have to understand that by wearing the uniform of the United States military, whether you’re Air Guard, Army Guard, you’re a naval officer, you’re attached as a Coast Guard officer, enlisted soldier, enlisted airman, people look up to us. People look to us for the example. That’s why so much effort’s gone into making sure we do this as right as we can do it and you are a symbol of what we represent to the American people. You are their protectors. You are their example. They look to us and we have developed relationships in the West Virginia Guard over decades of flood duty response, humanitarian service, that the people of West Virginia look to us for leadership and that goes right down to the most junior airman and the most basic private. When you show them that you’re wearing a mask as someone who’s strong, who’s fit, who’s in service to the country, you are demonstrating leadership that they can follow and they need that. They need to know that the country does have a normal and the normal is guardsmen go to drill, guardsmen go to AT, guardsmen wear personal protective equipment, and when they do, they’ll follow because they respect your leadership and they respect who you are as a soldier and an airman. (light music)