(upbeat music)
- Welcome to the House Calls After Show
where our health experts take more time
answering your life-changing and real questions.
Hi, I'm Deya Smith-Taylor.
Thank you for to spending more time with us,
Dr. Sanchez, because there were so many pressing questions
that people had to ask.
- Pleased to be with you.
- One question that we had was about preexisting conditions
in the midst of COVID.
Jason from Texas asks, cities are opening up.
Is it safe for me to go to my gym
if I have a preexisting condition?
- That's a really, really great question.
I think the question to ask yourself
about going to a gym is, does the gym have
all the things that it should have
to protect me and others who use the gym?
So, if you go in advance,
before you go to work out, check it out.
Do they have signage
about six feet of distance between people at least?
Do they have ways for you to wash your hands
very, very often?
Do they require that you wear a face mask
while you are out and about
at least until you get to the equipment
that you might use,
and is the equipment spaced in such a way
that if people are walking around,
you're not infecting them, they're not infecting you?
So, I think the question to ask yourself is
what is the gym doing to protect me and patrons
and actually staff as well?
Staff should all be wearing masks.
To the degree that they might be interacting,
what have they done to minimize the physical contact
between people and made physical distancing more possible?
- Yeah, that's a real question.
I think we're all dealing with those same questions
'cause everybody is picking up weight
during this pandemic,
and so we're looking for opportunities to work out.
This next question is about retesting.
Sylvia from California, she's an RN
and she wants to know, I've had body aches,
fever chills since the end of May
and I've tested positive for COVID-19 on June 6th.
I feel better now, so when is the right time
to get retested for COVID-19?
- It's been several weeks.
I think it's a good time to get,
several weeks and feeling better,
I think it's a good time,
it's an important time to get retested.
The testing and retesting
is absolutely still a work in progress.
Remember, there was no COVID-19 in early December 2019.
We've only begun to understand COVID-19,
but I think the questioner is asking the right question,
having been tested positive,
having had symptoms, having recovered for a while.
Is it time to get retested?
I would say yes.
Check with your healthcare provider to make that happen.
- This next question is about heart disease,
which is right up our alley.
Sibil says, should I be concerned
as a woman with heart disease
about getting tested for the virus?
I don't have any symptoms and wear a mask everywhere I go.
Also, should I be concerned about my three grandchildren,
particularly the youngest
who is only a year-and-a-half old?
- You asked it as a two-part question.
I'm breaking it up into three.
As an individual, getting tested without having symptoms
or any reason to believe
that you've been exposed is of little value
at a personal level.
If you are in a community where your health department
is trying to figure out how much COVID activity
there is in the community,
knowing that there are people who test negative
from a public health perspective has some value
because then in a public health way you can know
how much activity there is or isn't.
So, because you have heart disease
but have no symptoms I would say
I probably would not go get a test.
If your health department was saying
we are trying to get this figured out,
if they're doing it in a way
where you can be completely 100% safe,
then go get a test for public health reasons,
not necessarily for individual reasons.
The other part of that is about
being around your grandchildren.
Your grandchildren are probably safe.
The question is, where have your grandchildren been
and where have your grandchildren's parents been,
and is everyone concerned, convinced that grandma
is gonna be very, very safe to be interacting?
The thing to do, the most safe thing to do
is to not see them, but the next level of safety I would say
is figure out a way to interact with some distancing.
Hugging, not a good idea right now.
Even just kissing, absolutely not a good idea right now,
but being in a large room
where you can look at each other and yuck it up,
if you're more than 12 feet apart, yuck it up.
If you're not, keep it on the down low.
And then the other thing that I did was
I mentioned during house calls
that my mother-in-law lives a mile-and-a-half away,
and we are back to, because of the activity
that's gone on, we use the phone a lot,
we use FaceTime a lot, and I drive by there
and wave at her outside the window
or she opens her door and I stay pretty far away
and we can have a conversation.
There are ways to be creative to figure this out
and I trust that the person who asked the question,
a grandmother who's motivated to see her grandchildren
and the parents of those children
can sit down and figure out a safe way to get it done
thinking about the three W's.
Wash your hands, watch your distance, wear a mask.
And the three C's.
Avoid closed placed, crowded spaces,
and close conversations.
- Yeah, that's great advice.
And the thing about COVID is it really has forced us all
to be creative, as you've mentioned,
and speaking of yucking it up,
this next question is about social distancing in schools,
where we know there's a lot of activity
and a lot of people are concerned,
and I would dare say schools and also summer camp.
People are concerned about what to do.
And so Marsha in Colorado,
she says, I'm worried about teachers and students
returning to crowded classrooms in a month.
And like I said, also now during summer school or camp.
Can you weigh in about that?
- I hate to sound like a broken record
but it all boils down to the same basic principles,
and that is the three W's and the three C's.
So, when it comes to summer camp,
first of all ask yourself
is that the smartest thing to do right now?
Is there the capacity of that camp
to do all the things that are gonna make it possible
for children and counselors to be safe
in this time of COVID?
That includes the ability to wash your hands a bunch.
That includes social distancing
and getting that figured out.
Is it impossible?
Not impossible, but it takes a lot of creativity
and it takes a lot of rigor
and a lot of commitment to a certain regimen
that may not be the norm,
and absolutely wearing masks.
And then the other is, again, if a camp situation.
How do you avoid closed spaces, crowded places,
and close conservations?
And if you can convince yourself,
so I think as a parent you should ask
do you have a plan and can I see it?
I'd like to see that plan
and that plan should include what happens
if we think somebody has COVID-19?
A counselor or one of the campers,
and the same for the school.
What's your plan?
Can I see it?
And what is the plan if somebody were to get sick
during the school day?
I would say to parents,
schools should be figuring out how to do staggered shifts.
Maybe not all students every single day.
Have a plan that includes
some way of doing some things virtually.
Using spaces and rooms that aren't ordinarily used.
Gymnasiums for teaching as opposed to classrooms.
But again, I think it's what's your plan
to protect my child?
I wanna see it and I wanna make sure that at the very least
it complies with what the CDC says
or the things I'm hearing about the three W's
and the three C's somehow contained in that plan.
- Dr. Sanchez, believe it or not I just got a text.
The questions continue to come in
from our last show, so I really appreciate you
taking time out to answer a few more questions.
Ed Linley, look, this is a great question,
says, my wife makes me change clothes
when I come home from grocery shopping.
Is that reasonable?
- I think changing clothes
when you've been grocery shopping,
unless that grocery store full of people
coughing all over you is a little over the top,
so I would say that the reasonable thing
to expect that somebody do
when they've gone grocery shopping,
right now given what we know
is to come inside and wash hands.
And in fact, what I do when I have,
I carry a little bottle of soapy water,
a little bottle of water, and a towel,
and I wash my hands with soap and water.
Soap and water works a little bit better
than the hand sanitizers,
but if you can't have that,
have the hand sanitizer in your car
and every time you come in from being somewhere, use it,
and then when you walk in your house, use it again.
Way better than having to change your clothes.
And I can only imagine what the laundry load is
if that is what's happening every time you step out.
- You know, it's overwhelming to know what to do,
what not to do.
When you touch a door.
How many times should you wash your hands?
It's overwhelming for so many people
and there are so many misconceptions,
and so Patricia, speaking of misconceptions says,
once you've had COVID-19, you can't get it again.
It's a virus just as a flu or a cold.
That's what she says.
She said, you can get it again, right?
- Here's what we know, which is that we don't know.
The truth is there hasn't been enough time
for us to be sure, and what I hear the experts say
is that there is probably some protection
from being reinfected,
but that protection is not a life-long protection.
And so what's not clear
is whether that protection is months,
a few months, many months, or years, if that.
I wouldn't say all bets are off.
It is likely that you have some degree of protection,
but we're not sure how much or for how long.
And the better part of valor I believe right now
is to act as if you have no protection
rather than valiantly and cavalierly
step out and act as if you are a super protected person
and maybe roll model the wrong behavior,
'cause if you think you're protected and you can't get it
then you might think you can't give it
and you're not gonna wear a mask,
you're not gonna do the things to take care of yourself.
Really bad.
I'm a believer that we should all be modeling
the behavior that we would like others to engage in.
I, as I've shown before, am wearing a mask everywhere I go.
I wash my hands as I described earlier
and I make almost a dramatic point
of steering clear of people
if I'm gonna become six feet from them.
I want them to be aware of where I am
and I wanna message to them that the message is
we need to be six feet apart.
I don't yell at people.
I don't get into fights with people.
I just do my part to stay six feet or more away.
- Nice mask, by the way.
- Thank you.
It came to me from the American Heart Association.
I spoke in Louisville, Kentucky
and so interestingly just for folks
who might be seeing this,
it's AHA on this side and the state of Kentucky
with a flag on the inside.
This is probably the best after speech
gift I've ever gotten.
Beats the heck out of a plaque.
I can put it on my face and protect myself and others.
- And you use it (laughs).
- And use it.
- Yeah, unlike plaques sometimes.
Just two more questions,
not because we don't have more,
just because there's so many questions.
And I particularly like this question
because a lot of us wanna go back
and get certain services done, especially women,
and for self-care purposes even.
This question asks, should the massage therapists
wear both a mask and a shield?
- Common sense is really important.
It is probably the case that every little thing you add
adds another layer of protection.
We did talk about face shields
and did say that if you're gonna be, I did say this.
If you're gonna be in a contained space
for a prolonged period of time and exposed to somebody,
particularly if you are the person
who's providing the service,
I would prefer to go somewhere
where somebody's wearing a mask and a shield.
That's probably gonna reduce the likelihood
that they will infect me
if they are an asymptomatic carrier.
Now that's also assuming that you yourself
are really, really, really sure
that you're not an asymptomatic carrier
and you should afford that person who's doing the massage
the same level of respect and care.
It doesn't mean you need to wear a shield necessarily,
but you should be wearing a mask
if there's gonna be that kind of exposure.
Again, every little bit that might make a difference,
might make a difference.
It's certainly not gonna hurt,
so as I said with the camps,
as I said about the gyms, as I said about school,
I will say about masseuses and massage therapy locations.
I'll also say this about any place you go.
What is that place doing
to reduce the risk that I might get infected in that place?
That's a critical thing to think about
any time you go anywhere in this time of COVID.
Last thing about that I would say,
just a reminder for July 4th weekend.
Things outside are better than things inside
pretty much across the board.
Doesn't mean you can be closer.
It just means that if you do all the things
that we're talking about you reduce your risk,
that is the three W's and the three C's.
You reduce your risk way more
than if you do exactly the same things inside
because inside stuff doesn't move the way it moves outdoors.
- Listen, you've been so gracious.
Clearly there is no limit to the questions
that people have, which means this service
that you've been giving us is just invaluable.
Thank you so much for joining us
for our first After Show of House Calls.
It's been amazing, you've been amazing,
and I have a feeling we'll be doing more of this,
so we appreciate you
and we encourage everyone to make sure you tune in
on every Monday and we'll continue to bring you After Shows
and information from our experts
that will hopefully change your life
and help you to live a healthier one.
I'm Deya Smith-Taylor
and we appreciate you so much Dr. Sanchez.
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