Hey there walking bacteria farms! It's the time of year where us in the northern climes
hole up in our houses, feeling full of infection from whatever viruses the media is telling
us to be afraid of.
was gross. Off the top of my head I think of things like h1n1 and bird flu, MERS, SARS.
And now of course the coronavirus. All outbreaks of viruses that I can remember hearing about
over the years are bad. And each time we hear about them, we get videotape of empty store
shelves and humans wearing surgical masks just like these for protection. If you are
out in the world, and you want to protect yourself from viral infections or bacteria,
I am here to tell you seriously that walking around with one of these surgical masks on
besides just ain't there. They don't really help stop a virus or even bacteria from getting
into your body and it's healthy people buy them all.
We might actually be harming ourselves as a group.
Hey there human immuno fam. I am Trace. And thank you so much for joining me today I'm
going to retrace Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome new subscribers,
thank you for checking out my channel and for subscribing probably after my battery
video or after my interview with Sarafina. I am in the middle of a move. So this is not
a normal studio space. And actually my parents house in Michigan right now and the studio
is in the process being reconstructed in Los Angeles. And these are real pictures of me
that my mom and dad have pitches. actually kind of awesome. I'm here because my mom was
having some surgery done. She did great, everything's great. So I appreciate you being here. Honestly,
I could not do this without y'all. So thanks. It is generally accepted that humans pass
viruses and infectious bacteria to each other via bodily fluids. We sneeze we cough, we
speak and little droplets come flying out of our gods and they land on surfaces or directly
on other people, these droplets can be on the order of microns, they still have viruses
in them, which is why you often see people wearing masks like these. They're made of
paper and they loosely fit around your face, to allegedly protect you from this stuff.
They don't actually protect you though but they do is they protect others which can be
a good thing because personally, I love to be in command to the facts, and I like protecting
other people. So let's kick into it. I'm gonna get this… ugh. My glasses just went with
them. So gotta go get those.
In 2008 during the SARS epidemic, a study was done on facemasks by Hong Kong Polytechnic
University. In it, researchers sprayed a fluorescent solution onto people's faces and then had
those people exercise or breathe heavily into a mask. They then tested those masks to see
if the contamination the fluorescent solution got out and they looked at it under black
light. Turns out the masks mostly worked a mask like the type they were testing could
stop more than 90% of infectious material. This is assuming a lot of things of course,
like you were wearing the mask correctly and tightly and you have the correct filters in
place.
And, you'll notice, that these were not surgical masks. They were something a little more robust.
I'll come back to that in a minute because you came here to see the surgical mask. So
let's take a look at that. So what I did is I went into my parent's garage and I went
to Meijer and I bought a couple of dummy heads. I'm going to replicate the Hong Kong poly
study. I've got some fluorescing fluid and I've made it so that Ned here can sneeze and
Fred here can be the sneezy. So let's see how these masks actually perform in the real
world say if someone were to sneeze on you, this is it in slow motion.
Womp womp. Right? That right doesn't look like anything which is why you need to switch
to blacklight! Que the electronica!
Oh, Darwin's Beard! Fred is just covered in sneeze, the mask stop some of the spray but
not all of it. Let's do the whole thing again, but in blacklight…
Pretty cool. Oh my god.
The side of him is disgusting. If someone sneezed at him, this side is fine. But here
is that's not great.
Fred does not breathe, but you do. Breathing would definitely suck the spray into the tops
and sides of this mask. More on that later.
This is Ned, we gave him a mouth. And here is what the mask is really for stopping stuff
coming out and sneeze. As I suspected homos, nothing, enhance, enhance, enhance, didn't
come through at all. So now we know that the masks really stop you from affecting others.
They don't actually stop you from getting infected. But since we have everything all
set up already, I'm going to have Ned sneeze on Fred one last time we're going to go full
Mythbusters you know, just for fun. Okay, Hit the lights. net. Hey, Fred.
That's pretty gross.
Wow,
You should have said Sorry -- mom
Sorry.
And the mask didn't actually help that much. It wasn't actually testing against viruses,
obviously, just fluorescent droplets of liquid. But keep in mind that viruses and bacteria
tend to hitch rides on our bodily fluids. In fact, in a 2006 study, the regular surgical
masks the regular ones, so you can get it drug stores were found to let through nearly
85% of viruses. That's right. They let them through. Yeah, they don't really do anything.
But look at this. In the sneeze experiment, you can see that that mask stopped a significant
amount of fluorescent solution from impacting a second person, it protected other people
surgical masks filter out things around five microns in size and in the micro world. That's
not actually that small surgical smoke is like five microns or smaller so it wouldn't
necessarily get through and that's what they were designed for human cells that 50 microns,
so they're not going to get through but bacteria can get as small as fractions of microns.
And viruses can be 100 times smaller than bacteria. Needless to say, a mask made of
paper not going to actually stop pathogens, but it will stop saliva, mucus, human cells
and other travelers from you mostly to others. surgical masks aren't really for you there
to protect others from you. When a surgeon dons a mask before slicing open your abdomen.
They're looking to keep their spray out of your body and also to block any possible streams
of bodily fluids that could spew from your extricated and trails. But seriously, the
real use case for these paper masks is that human spray in a 2013 study on exhalation
of viruses from a few dozen volunteers, they found the surgical masks reduced the people
exhaling viruses on two samples by almost three times on the smallest particles. This
is why doctors and nurses who think that you might be sick give you a mask. They're not
trying to protect you from getting worse. They're trying to protect other people. If
you sneeze in someone's face while wearing a mask, you're protecting them. But if you're
wearing a mask and someone sneezes in your face, not really so much, especially once
you've been wearing it for a while, because once you've been wearing it, your breath saturates
it with moisture, you're just giving a place for pathogens to rest until they can get on
your hands or your face. The biggest fail for these masks are often the humans wearing
them because you know you've got it on and your nose gets itchy and you scratch it or
you rub your eyes. This makes the mask useless. Not only are your rubbing your dirty mitts
on the inside of the mask, that's exactly what you're trying to avoid. But directly
putting whatever was on your hand into your mucous membranes makes the mask useless. On
top of that, it loosens and already loose mask which is another problem. The air you're
breathing. It can just go around y'all it can just go a rap air doesn't
Just go, it goes around, and the viruses that they'll carry will go along with it. They
might make you feel safe, but it's like a security blanket. And the security part, as
we know is all in our heads. The real way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated for
influenza, or to wash your hands like a lot. I'm not a doctor, I'm not an engineer, if
you want to buy a mask to give yourself a little peace of mind, a little protection,
very little of both of those things, but cool. To be honest, though, a better way to protect
yourself, wash your hands regularly. But now but true, it's far more likely that you will
come in contact with a pathogen on your hands via door handles, railings, public transit
buttons on Elevators, your own car, your cell phone, other people's cell phones and touch
surfaces. And if you don't wash your hands, we touch our faces often enough that we just
stick it right inside our body. So I bet you're wondering if those surgical masks can protect
you. Are there any masks that can What do we do? What do they do it? They haven't been
movies like what was
masks exists that are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for protection
against disease causing bacteria and viruses. This is one of them the end 95 fail during
phase respirator and 95 way better those really weird and the same 2006 studies that found
85% of viruses would penetrate the surgical mask, they found that only 5% of viruses penetrated
the end 95 mask and 95 means it will filter 95% of particles that are point three microns
or larger from the air that is ridiculously small. I mean, still some viruses can get
through, but that gets a lot of stuff and 90 fives are considered a medical device by
the US FDA and does their regulation requires a number of things like that they fit properly,
they fit tightly and many people because of that, find them hard to breathe through which
is not the point but you know a side effect. You want to seal to keep the pathogens from
being able to slip around the mask meaning if you have a beard kind of like I do then
you're less
protected than someone who's clean shaven, because air can still get through. And here's
the kicker, the Centers for Disease Control does not actually recommend the N 95 for home
use or community use, likely because they don't actually help if they don't fit your
face properly. They're not reusable, and they're often used improperly. So for example, let's
say you've got the perfect face for the 95. It's working perfectly, then you got it on
your face, it's just great. Then you grab the front to take it off. You just contaminated
yourself because the front was filtering the pathogens out of the air that down the front
of the mask. What if you throw it in the trash and you expose your mom or your cleaning guy
or your kid the trash collector? What if you got it on your hands and then you've touched
your mucous membranes again, like that's not the best and 90 fives are great for professionals,
but they're a bit overkill for the average human who would do better by just washing
their hands and using a little common sense. During the SARS outbreak. The Centers for
Disease Control gave masks to their staff and they found that those who wore them, consider
Recently improperly did reduce infection rates, but they were working at the CBC, where lots
of other procedures and training kept that staff safe and I've said it already they were
and washing, sanitizing with alcohol avoiding touching their faces cleaning surfaces all
the time and you know, they are all vaccinated. The reality of infection is that humans can
infect others before they even know they're sick. The influenza virus can be transmitted
a day before symptoms even appear. And for a week after you feel sick. A mask may protect
your sickness from getting on other people via spray, but it might not if you have an
illness already or think you might go ahead and grab a mask, wear it to protect other
people. If you wear it consistently and well. You can help other people avoid getting sick
and that is awesome. That paired with handwashing can mean the real difference between a single
patient and an epidemic. You can choose to halt transmission with you but if the masks
are sold out, because of all the
Healthy People who bought them thinking that they could stop a virus from getting into
their body. Now we're in trouble because conscientious people can't get them. Honestly, the human
body's immune system is amazing. Every one of us creates barriers for pathogens, we fight
infections that make it through. And we remember what fought in the past to keep us protected
in the future. Just because it's amazing doesn't mean this miracle of evolution can't use an
assist here and there. And there are a bunch of ways you can help your immune system mainly
by washing your hands. In the end, there is not a lot of data to show that these masks
are effective. But there's not a lot of data that show that they are not no mask is 100%
effective at preventing disease transmission, no nothing that shouldn't make you feel afraid
because it was true before you knew it just now it should remind you to behave well. Wash
your hands, wash your hands again, and definitely get vaccinated to protect yourself and your
family. Stay home if you think you might be sick to protect your co workers wear a mask
if you are sick and have to
go out in public for any reason so you don't spray your stuff on other people mask like
these are not super powerful Star Trek shield protecting you from enemies, they're actually
more like hiding behind a piece of paper to disguise yourself.
Really quick before you go there, my friend Mary Beth has a slogan, if it's for free,
it's for me. So if you want to support Joseph Trace and you want to get something for free,
you should with Skillshare they help support the channel and you can do all you gotta do
is try Skillshare for a couple of months, I'm always online searching for how tos and
trying to discover like new ways to do things with video editing or DIY stuff, learn about
lighting and cameras and all sorts of things. Whereas before I just went and randomly searched
now I will go to Skillshare and actually learn stuff. Skillshare is an online community of
creative learners who teach each other new skills like graphic design, habit formation,
marketing or business, web development, video music production, even tips on how to
craft or better pickup art is super awesome. And they do lots of different stuff. You can
try Skillshare premium for two months for free with my link here. And it supports the
show if you do it again, all for free. And if it's for free, it's for me, I just finished
a big move. And once I got to the new apartment, I really wanted the place to look nice. So
I went to skill share and I found Emily Henderson's class style, your space, bringing creativity
to interior design. I've always liked interior design, but I don't know anything about it.
And it's cool to start to understand after just a few classes with Skillshare to put
something on a wall or a table and will actually help make it look better and not just cluttered.
I know we can all feel that and I really love it. So again, join Skillshare with my link,
you're going to get two months of premium membership for free and after that it is only
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and lifelong learners. I have to say that sounds like you. So thanks for doing it supports
the show. If you're worried about infections, don't rush to the store.
For surgical masks and instead get some alcohol based hand sanitizer do not get drug based
antibacterial soap. alcohol based kills with chemistry, drug based antibacterials are drugs
that contribute to drug resistant bacteria or superbugs which means your kids kids might
not be able to fight infections at all. Not the best. alcohol. Yes, trick. Listen. No,
thanks so much for watching everyone. I am Trace. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram,
you name it. I'm out there at Trace Dominguez, thank you so much to the patrons, thanks to
the new patrons who joined in the last couple of weeks. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you.
I could not do this without you. I hope you learned something because I know I did. And
I will see you in the future. Come on, get over here so we can get a picture with Ned.