once upon a time not in hollywood but inside a lovely san diego starbucks a woman by the name
of amber lynn gills was refused service for not wearing a mask in her complaint in a facebook
post that went viral she shared a picture of the employee who wouldn't serve her and she said
meet lennon from starbucks who refused to serve me because i'm not wearing a mask
next time i'll wait for the cops and bring in medical exemption
whoa medical exemption okay i'll get to that in a bit but her attempt to shame this guy lenin ended
up backfiring after a gofundme campaign raised over 20 thousand dollars from all over the world
then this happened even more recently a woman boarded in an american airlines flight in ohio
apparently she was argumentative and demanding to be boarded first and was causing a scene but
the biggest thing was that she refused to wear a mask and was therefore kicked off the plane
social media dubbed her karen after she claimed to have a medical condition preventing her from
wearing a mask as she exits the plane the other passengers give her a non-standing
just ovation we have flights again but it's not just these incidents mentioned
as there are multiple people in this country whipping out the get out of face mask free card
see some people have a hold of these face mask exemption cards which are completely
fake claiming to give them a pass to not wear a mask because of an underlying health condition
it says wearing a face mask pauses either they're trying for a british accent or is written by a
third grader wearing a face mask poses a mental and or physical risk to me it then goes on to
say under the americans with disability act i am not required to disclose my condition to you
okay so it also incorrectly names the americans with disabilities act and falsely claims
department of justice violation but the card also references the freedom to breathe agency and this
one really takes my breath away well considering that the pawns and medulla are the part of the
brain that controls breathing and the pons in the medulla is the deepest core of our brain function
literally the last thing to go when someone is brain dead had it not been for this agency though
the most core aspect of our brain function would cease to exist thank you freedom to breathe
agency of course everything about this card is fake so for all these people who falsely claim
that they have a medical exemption to wearing a mask this really irks me for two reasons
one because they should be wearing a mask and two because this is the equivalent of someone parking
in a handicapped spot who isn't disabled but these instances of people claiming medical exemptions
for masks it's really raising the issue are there any legit medical conditions
that could preclude someone from wearing a mask or face covering can one truly be
medically exempt from wearing one and just to be clear here i'm not talking about n95
respirator masks that's a whole other conversation i'm talking about these regular medical masks
okay this is a whole another conversation from the n95 respirator so let's take a look at what
the cdc has to say about it cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under the
age of two years anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious incapacitated or otherwise
unable to remove the mask without assistance i totally get the less than two years of age or if
someone is mentally incapacitated that makes sense because you want someone to have the ability to
adjust the mask totally makes sense but the trouble breathing thing please define
trouble breathing because trouble breathing is impossible to define really someone could feel
short of breath which is subjective but anyone can say i feel short of breath without actually having
trouble breathing and i have patients who always have trouble breathing and require supplemental
oxygen around the clock and they can still wear a mask but i'll come back to that in a bit so we
saw the cdc statement but every state has its own guidelines regarding the wearing of face coverings
in california the state's department of public health gives mask exemptions to quote persons with
a medical condition mental health condition or disability that prevents wearing a face covering
this includes persons with a medical condition for whom wearing a face covering could obstruct
breathing or who are unconscious incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove a face covering without
assistance and in new york city you don't have to wear face covering if you quote have a health
issue that makes you unable to tolerate one but here's the issue with these policies they don't
list any specific health conditions that would preclude someone from wearing a mask probably
because there really aren't any the only medical condition that precludes someone from wearing a
mask would be heart titus the term itis is latin for inflammation in the term horse which is fecal
material evacuated from the rectum of species equus cabalis but seriously there are no medical
exemptions from wearing a face mask unless someone has a severe skin condition of their face like a
second or third degree burn now someone might make the same point as this florida woman recently did
when she stood up at a meeting of the palm beach county commissioners
and said i don't wear a mask for the same reason i don't un wear underwear things gotta breathe and
to you ma'am i would say i'm no gynecologist but i'm pretty sure your doesn't have a set of lungs
or does it because that means not only can it do what it normally does but can also do this
which quite honestly is amazing if it can do that and even though karina does rhyme with vagina
that's where the similarities end but i think the point that she's trying to make is that the mask
causes there to be less circulation of air in front of her face and yeah this is true there's
less circulation of air right in front of your nostrils and mouth when you're wearing one of
these masks or face coverings but does it actually obstruct airflow into and out of your nostrils
in your mouth does it obstruct airflow when you inhale does it obstruct airflow when you exhale
this is like asking if you go to the beach and you leave the beach with sand in between your toes
is there less sand on the beach technically yeah but it's negligible now some might say
well didn't you see the bill nye the science guys video on tick tock and yes i've seen it
greetings everyone bill nye here it's a great video demonstrating how the mask has the ability
to effectively block the respiratory droplets from being expelled in a ballistic manner in that video
depending on the fabric and the thickness of the fabric the mask impedes airflow through the mask
and that's why the candle was less affected by him blowing now did he give his all with his blowing
effort each and every time only bill can answer that question regardless i think it's a pretty
convincing video on mask effectiveness but here's why it doesn't obstruct airflow in and out of your
lungs it's because air passes freely in the areas around the mask so as long as the mask is not too
tight on your face and as long as the mask is not too thick it's not going to obstruct airflow in
and out of your lungs you can actually see when i exhale the co2 the carbon dioxide that exhale
it actually causes my glasses to fog up that's because some of the air is going up this way
between the mask and my face but also it's being expelled through the bottom here and also through
the sides so air is escaping the mouth and the nostrils without any difficulty so if someone
is properly wearing a proper mask they should not get that feeling of suffocation no matter
what underlying medical condition someone has so it's worth trying different types of masks
and or adjusting the fit of the mask if you feel like it's impacting your breathing so once again a
mask like the one i'm holding here has essentially zero impact on airflow in and out of your lungs as
long as it's not too snug on your face and that is part of the purpose of having the wire in
these masks is so that you can conform that around the bridge of your nose to allow for air to flow
around the mask yes there are different types of face masks and some have more fabric than others
but as long as it's not so tight as to compress your nostrils or lips it's not going to obstruct
the airflow alright so now let's take a look at what happens when i do as many push-ups as i can
that way i'm breathing heavy where i'm breathing fast and deep pay attention to what happens to the
mask is it sucking air through the mask and is it pushing out the mask let's see a few minutes later
all right as you can see i'm pretty out of breath right now i just did as many push-ups as i could
and not easy for me to talk right now so normally tidal volume where you're breathing in and out
it's about half a liter right now because i just did a bunch of push-ups my volumes going in and
out or about probably three or four liters somewhere on there you can see as i suck in
about three to four liters and blow out three to four liters it does part of the mask goes in as
inhale part of it goes outward as exhale but it's pretty minimal air is still able to go in and out
so the amount of resistance through the mask is pretty minimal so you can even try this
yourself at home it's really not going to affect your breathing so people of course
don't normally breathe like that so it's only when you breathe that heavy and that deep is
when you're really going to see any movement of the mask but as you could tell i was still
able to breathe didn't stop my breathing i didn't have any harder time breathing with the mask on
it's just very minimal resistance when i was moving air through the mask the air could still
get in and out on the sides and above and below so as long as the mask is not too snug on your face
you're not going to have a harder time breathing and what about if someone has an underlying lung
disease i have patients with very severe copd chronic obstructive lung disease and for all
intents and purposes copd is synonymous with emphysema i have patients with copd so bad that
they require supplemental oxygen 24 7 and they're still short of breath practically all the time
yet they're able to wear a mask in fact whenever my patients come into the pulmonary clinic
they have to wear a mask and we always check their oxygen levels and guess what their oxygen levels
are not lower with the mask and medically speaking i could sit here for hours on end explaining
pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology which would be way over most people's heads we could
talk about how when your diaphragm contracts it generates a negative pressure within your chest
which causes air to flow into your lungs from your nostrils in your mouth and how there will be less
air flow if you have airway resistance which can be caused by multiple things like asthma
copd or whatever obstructs your airway i could sit here and talk about the fraction of inspired
oxygen being 21 of air and if you're at sea level with one atmospheric pressure which is
760 millimeters mercury that means the partial pressure of oxygen you inhale is going to be
around 150 millimeters mercury and that means the amount of oxygen in your alveoli will be 150
minus the amount of carbon dioxide in the alveoli which is for most people who have healthy lungs
it's going to end up being 100 millimeters of mercury and most of that oxygen in your alveoli
is then going to diffuse into your bloodstream to give you a certain oxygen level but that's going
too deep so long story short is wearing one of these masks is not going to cause hypoxia meaning
low oxygen levels it's also not going to cause hypercapnia meaning elevated carbon dioxide levels
so that's the breathing issue and it's well established by now that wearing these masks
reduces transmission of the disease and this has been confirmed in several studies and there are
studies that visually demonstrate the difference between wearing masks and not wearing masks
including when someone coughs and sneezes so check out my video on airborne transmission to
see what i'm talking about if you haven't already and there are countries that have had such low
coronavirus numbers like south korea singapore vietnam new zealand a big part of their success
is because of masks and just one more point i want to make because i've been asked about this
so what about using a face shield that drops from the forehead to down below the chin so
this mode of protection isn't as tried and true as a face mask but at least in
theory it should stop the droplets from being dispersed and from landing on someone's face
so it's likely equivalent to one of these masks so that's all for this video hope you enjoyed it
make sure you like and subscribe and click on that bell notification if you haven't already
i do have another video coming down the pike pretty soon which is going to talk about a new
n95 that's coming out that's more comfortable and available to the public so i'm pretty excited for
that one stay tuned and i'll see you then oh yeah one more thing i almost forgot i'm starting a new
youtube channel in addition to this channel so the new one's going to be called the mike hansen show
and it's not going to be medical talk like this channel is it's going to be more behind the
scenes stuff more stuff about my personal life like for example the first video that's now up
is about me adopting a new dog and he's actually here right now but he is just laying
on the ground he's tired and he does not want to participate in this video so go check it out