You Can’t Fool Mother Nature

You can’t fool Mother Nature. “She is not a contestant on The Apprentice. She is just chemistry, biology and physics. We’re the contestants on her show. We don’t get to fire her. She gets to fire us. She throws viruses, hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and pandemics at us to sort out who’s the fittest. And the ones who survive have one thing, and one thing only, in common: They are the most adaptive at generating the chemistry, biology and physics needed to meet the challenge.”

—  Thomas Friedman, Opinion Columnist for The New York Times

Make America Immune Again

This is the title of a May 5, 2020 opinion column written by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times . What he had to say is worth the read, so I share excerpts here…

What happened to our respect for Science and Medicine?

I’ve been married to a physician and medical educator for almost 39 years, and I have a great deal of respect for my husband’s knowledge and input on matters related to health. I also have great respect for evidence-based information provided by the broader medical and scientific community.

Until recently, I never thought I would see the day when science and medicine would become so politicized.

Unfortunately, wearing a mask and heeding the sound advice offered by our global scientific community has become very political…and this political divide is costing us lives and is devastating our economy. We see evidence of how things could have been when we look to other countries who took swift action and followed sound guidelines to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

If you were to get badly injured in a car accident, you’d probably seek the aid of trusted medical professionals to help put you back together. And yet for some, there is so little regard for the knowledge of our medical experts and scientists who  have provided simple and affordable guidelines for how to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. I am perplexed by the push back about something as simple as wearing a mask or cloth covering over your nose and mouth. I’m also amazed at the number of instant self-appointed “experts” who are spreading misinformation on social media.

Another political fallout has resulted from a conspiracy theory being spread by those who claim that the death toll numbers from Covid-19 are inflated, or suggesting that the coronavirus is no worse than the flu, when scientific statistics paint a very different picture. My husband’s first-hand experience indicates that the number of Covid-19 deaths are actually under-reported. In his 35 years in practice, he and his colleagues have never seen such carnage. He has lost patients and family members to Covid-19. The New York Times published an excellent article last month: Is the Coronavirus Death Tally Inflated? Here’s Why Experts Say No.  Global infection rate and death toll numbers are reported worldwide and are tracked here.

Recommendation vs. Mandate

Americans are rarely up in arms when they see signs that require them to wear shoes or shirts, because abiding by those mandates is part of our culture. In early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that Americans wear a face cloth covering or mask in places where it is difficult to social distance from others. But even in states with mask mandates, a number of Americans are defying these orders, despite scientific evidence that suggests that use of face masks can greatly limit the transmission of the coronavirus, which is spread mainly through respiratory droplets.

Americans value freedom of choice and don’t like to be told what to do. Those Americans who choose not to wear masks may feel a sense of solidarity, like they’re taking a stand against authority. That solidarity has created an alarming statistic: The USA makes up only 4.25% of the world’s population, but it makes up one-quarter of all Covid-19 deaths. The number of US deaths is in marked contrast to other countries, where populations have generally been compliant with wearing face coverings.

Because it is estimated that 25-45% of us are asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers of the virus, none of us know who is safe to be around.  In addition, people freely  travel from one geographic area to another, so someone who’s infected can come into a “safe” region and become a superspreader. For this reason, I’d rather be inconvenienced and deal with the discomfort of wearing a mask than to take the risk of being responsible for unknowingly spreading the Covid-19 virus to someone else.

I’ll wear a mask for as long as I need to. Doing so shows that I care about you. When you wear a mask, you demonstrate that you care about me. We’re all in this together.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said it was “disrespectful” for people to refuse to wear a mask in public. “You can literally kill someone because you did not want to wear a mask. How cruel and irresponsible would that be?”

Part of our challenge has been that mixed messages have come from the very top. At the same time as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced new guidelines that Americans should cover their faces in public to curb the virus spread, President Trump said it was “voluntary” and he himself would not do so. And in late April, Vice President Pence — head of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force —  toured the Mayo Clinic and visited a patient’s bedside without a mask, even though this renowned medical facility required all visitors to wear one … something he later apologized for. Just this week, Pence has been wearing a mask and urging others to do the same when in public.

Our top infectious disease expert at the National Institute of Health, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that our current coronavirus surge has been caused by some areas reopening too quickly and also by people not following the basic guidelines to frequently wash their hands, practice social distancing, and properly wear a mask over their mouth and nose when going to public places. Dr. Fauci warns that if the US doesn’t take drastic action to arrest the spread of the coronavirus, we could soon record as many as 100,000 new cases a day — a more than doubling of the current number. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan says we already could be at 100,000 new cases a day, given that our testing is still inadequate. There’s no question that infections are far more widespread than we’ve confirmed.

Just yesterday, leaders of America’s top business organizations wrote an open letter urging the White House to work with governors to develop mandatory mask guidelines, after a Goldman Sachs study showed universal mask-wearing could “potentially substitute for lockdowns that would otherwise subtract nearly 5% from GDP.”  That represents $1.02 trillion in lost revenue.

Americans could be talking about how we flattened the curve, what a relief it is to be able to get back to work, interact normally with family and friends, and get the kids back in school in the Fall. That’s what’s happening in many countries around the world.  Unfortunately, instead we are getting hit hard with outbreaks that are overloading hospital capacity in Texas, Florida, and Arizona. Apparently they learned nothing from the other states and countries that previously experienced surges.  Now that these regions are in complete crisis and breakdown, they are mandating the use of masks in public.

I can’t breathe with a mask on!

I totally get it! I don’t like wearing a mask, especially in hot weather…but I wear one, anyway. We all need to wear masks until we have this pandemic under control. Although it does not completely prevent the virus spread, if we can significantly slow it down and save lives, I am all for that. I remind myself that it’s a lot easier to breathe through a mask than a ventilator!

I really feel for the medical professionals and other frontline workers who have to wear a mask for 8-12 hours while working. I am fortunate that I only have to wear one during the limited times when I go out in public. My physician husband and my daughter (a nurse) both have to wear masks during the entire time they’re at work.

Although you might feel like you’re not getting enough oxygen, if you were to wear a sat monitor (a gizmo you put on your finger that measures your oxygen saturation levels), you’d find that your oxygen levels are the same with or without a mask — typically 95-99%. I invite you to check this out for yourself. You can also watch a short but very informative YouTube video  that demonstrates how a medical professional’s oxygen level (98% in both cases) and heart rate did not change with or without a mask.

For those who don’t believe that masks are necessary, here’s a scientific explanation for how it works. An oxygen molecule is two atoms in size (see diagram) and a corona molecule is much larger — in the range of the size of the polio virus. The atomic-level structure of the virus is made of thousands of atoms — more than the two atoms that the oxygen molecule is made of. This makes it much easier for oxygen to pass through a mask and much harder for the coronavirus to pass through. To wear it properly, the mask needs to fit well and needs to cover your nose and mouth in order to catch the maximum number of virus molecules.

If you still have questions about the efficacy of wearing a mask, University of California San Francisco has published an article that explains the science behind how face masks prevent coronavirus spread.  Included in this UCSF article: “Two compelling case reports also suggest that masks can prevent transmission in high-risk scenarios. In one case, a man flew from China to Toronto and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. He had a dry cough and wore a mask on the flight, and all 25 people closest to him on the flight tested negative for COVID-19. In another case, in late May, two hair stylists in Missouri had close contact with 140 clients while sick with COVID-19. Everyone wore a mask and none of the clients tested positive.”

Health-care workers who have been on the job throughout the pandemic also have some words of wisdom about the safest way to lift a lockdown.

Beyond some discomfort and inconvenience, what’s the harm in wearing a mask? Science has told us the benefits. Cincinnati’s Hamilton County Coroner, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, sums it up well: “This is not politics. This is health care. We need to separate the two. This has nothing to do with anyone’s freedom. This is a minor thing to do that can have a huge impact on keeping people safe.”

Health experts are begging Americans to follow the guidelines and avoid social gatherings over this Fourth of July weekend.  Mother Nature does not care where you live, what your political or religious views are, or how much money you have. All of us need to adapt to what Mother Nature has thrown our way by behaving in a disciplined fashion throughout the summer. By doing so, together we can vastly reduce the transmission of Covid-19…and that’s the most patriotic thing we can do for one another!

Additional Resources

• Tips for Wearing a Mask with Glasses (so they don’t fog)
• How to make face masks with breathable filter pockets (sewing tutorial)
• A young man’s dying words after attending a “Covid party”
• How risky is dining out right now? Here’s the research.
• Excellent scientific info about most effective types of masks (9:40 video)

Life Architect – Creating Blueprints for Purposeful & Productive Lives

Kathy@OrgCoach.net
www.OrgCoach.net