- Hey, guys. Welcome to another episode
of the Wednesday checkup.
It feels like we haven't done one of those intros in awhile.
But that's because we've been busy
talking about the novel coronavirus.
Today, we're gonna be looking at some
of the most common conspiracy theories
I've seen and heard out there.
Shane Dawson, I'm looking at you.
We're doing the medical version.
Medical conspiracy time.
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The government introduced the coronavirus in 2018
and Bill Gates was somehow responsible.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one
of the most humanitarian foundations
in the world, financially speaking.
They're literally doing everything they can
to eradicate disease, bring fresh water to people,
and we're gonna blame this on them?
Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases
say that you should ensure your mouth and throat are moist,
never dry, so make sure you're taking a few sips
of water every 15 minutes.
Skeptical to the source.
I don't know if necessarily Japanese doctors came out
and said this, but there's partial truth to it.
If you have dry mucous membranes,
they are more likely to crack.
When they crack, you actually have a higher possibility
of getting infected with a bacteria or virus.
So, yeah, you should be staying well-hydrated.
You should be drinking.
Will it protect you a hundred percent? No.
But it's a good way to make sure that
you're doing the best you can to stay healthy.
Hand dryers are effective at killing coronavirus.
I don't think that's the case.
It certainly hasn't been proven.
Also CDC recommends drying your hands
through the air dry method,
which is you just naturally let your hands dry,
or using a paper towel.
Reason being ... There was a study
that I actually talked about on this channel
that showed those ultra high speed dryers
actually blow bacteria and viruses all over the place.
Especially if you don't wash your hands well.
With this virus having fecal-oral spread,
meaning that toilets, sinks, can be quite messy,
especially in public restrooms,
you don't wanna be blowing that bacteria
and viruses all over the place.
So, no, I don't think air dryers will kill the virus,
and I don't think you should be using them.
You can create your own hand sanitizer using Tito's vodka.
I was almost gonna say like yeah, it's possible to create
your own ... Not with vodka!
Not with Tito's vodka!
I actually think Tito's vodka came out
and had to make a statement on this
because people were doing this based off a TikTok video.
No, you cannot use Tito's vodka,
which I think is only 40 percent alcohol
to create a hand sanitizer like that.
It's just not recommended.
If you're gonna be using some kind of disinfectant,
the recommendation would be to use rubbing alcohol.
That being said, soap and water,
soap and water, soap and water.
Gargling with salt water or vinegar
will eliminate the COVID-19 coronavirus.
We have no evidence of that.
I actually do recommend salt water gargles
to a lot of my patients.
Not for eliminating viruses.
Just because it soothes a sore throat.
If you have mucous build up, it helps clear the mucous,
especially if you have like post nasal drip
or really chronic sore throat.
But to kill the virus?
We don't have evidence of that.
Also this virus seems to be very infectious
in comparison to the influenza virus for example,
so if it touches your mucous membranes,
right away it's gonna start infecting the rest of your body.
It has a long incubation period,
but a quick infection period,
if that makes any sense.
Coronavirus originated with Chinese people
eating bats from open air markets.
Okay, I heard this one, and initially I was almost ready
to buy into that, because, you know,
other cultures eat different animals,
so I wasn't one to judge.
However, when I looked in to this,
I found that the initial picture that started this reporting
actually didn't come from China.
It came from a reporter that was eating
in an asian country, not China, some kind of local delicacy.
Nothing to do with the cuisine
that's actually consumed in China.
So, no, we have no evidence of this coming from bat soup.
We need to stop that.
We initially thought that this virus started in bats,
somehow made its way to humans,
probably through a mutation.
There could have been an intermediate carrier along the way,
so perhaps a bat passed it to another animal,
and then we got into humans.
We don't know that yet.
We're gonna be investigating.
And again, let's think smart here.
We're trying to combat this, prevent spread,
flatten the curve ... I mentioned that in my other video,
which basically decreases the strain
that's put on our healthcare systems.
What's the use in talking about bat soup
outside of getting clicks? Zero.
The most dangerous or at-risk place you can go
is a train or subway.
The most dangerous place you could probably go
is a hospital or an emergency room
with people sneezing and coughing all over the place.
That is why we have been directing patients
to call in ahead of time to figure out
if their symptoms are mild enough
so we can get them to stay home
so they don't spread their virus
and they don't catch anyone else's.
One of the biggest problems we face in the hospital
is known as nosocomial infection.
I know that's a mouthful.
Basically means that you got sick
from being in the hospital.
If you notice, doctors are always trying
to get all the tests done, give you all your treatments,
so that we can send you home from the hospital.
It's not because we don't enjoy having you there.
It's because we don't want you to catch a disease
accidentally in the hospital.
It happens. There's sick people all around.
Some people don't wash their hands well.
They sneeze in the hallway.
You walk through it.
There's all sorts of issues.
So while I do think being in a crowded subway is not good,
being in a place where there's a lot of sick people
is probably a tad worse.
That's why you should be going only in cases of emergency
or when you need serious medical advice or help.
That's why most routine procedures, surgeries,
well checks, all have been pushed aside
in order to prevent patients from coming in
and catching COVID-19.
The Simpsons predicted the coronavirus.
The Simpsons, the novels, no.
No one could have predicted this.
Yes, we knew that there was a possibility
of another pandemic happening.
It happens. With each generation I think it happens.
The last one that, to me, rings the biggest bell
is the Spanish Flu of 1918.
That claimed millions of lives.
Hopefully now with modern medicine,
our ability to communicate, our ability
to create technology like vaccines
and antiviral medications rather quickly,
hopefully we're gonna do a better job.
An Irish company is preparing
to release rapid COVID-19 testing kits,
which could provide results in 15 minutes.
That would be awesome, because we need more testing kits.
If we could get them done quickly, very important.
However, these tests, especially the rapid ones
need to be heavily scrutinized through clinical trials
because we need to establish the sensitivity
and the specificity of those tests.
Both of those need to be high.
I'll explain each of them.
A test that has high sensitivity
is good for screening, meaning taking general people
in the population and trying to find out
if they have a specific disease.
In a highly sensitive test, you have few false negatives.
On a highly specific test, you have few false positives.
The ideal way of doing this is you give someone
as a screening test, a highly sensitive one,
and then you can give them a highly specific test
to confirm that diagnosis.
Now, in a test like this, where you're testing people
who are already sick, it's not necessarily screening.
It's more diagnostic, and a good diagnostic test has both.
High sensitivity and specificity.
There are many supplements and other cures
that can fight off the coronavirus.
We have zero evidence for any of those statements,
and I'm so proud of the FDA for prosecuting
those individuals trying to make claims like this.
John Oliver had a segment of someone trying to sell
silver as a way to get rid of the virus.
No. No! And if you're a supplement manufacturer,
or you have your own line of supplements,
please do not use this as a moment to brand your product.
That is a cheap shot, praying at folks' vulnerabilities
at a very sensitive time.
We should be banding together, not trying to figure out
how to make a buck off each other.
Four women in Wuhan have given birth to babies
who do not have the coronavirus, unlike their mothers.
There's been some evidence showing that
what we call vertical transmission,
from the mother to the baby inside the uterus,
there isn't transmission.
That's not to say it can't happen,
but the evidence for it does look promising.
We're hoping it stays that way.
I do recommend checking on Mama Dr. Jones.
She does a fantastic job talking all things OBGYN,
coronavirus included ... Link's down below.
Here's a playlist of some medical memes
for you to learn and laugh from
because laughter is good medicine.
And here's another playlist of my Reddit series.
Check it out.
Which one are you gonna click on
while you stay happy and healthy?
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