Masks and Microbiology

Idiot Inslee, Governor of Washington, is now demanding that everybody wear masks in public indoor areas, and outdoors where less than 6 foot distance is maintained.  I don't know how legal this is.  One man should not be able to dictate "laws" that everyone in the state must follow.  That's what we have state legislatures for.  Blue governors across the country have seized upon the willingness of Americans to comply with these tyrannical orders.  But, Americans are becoming wise to their schemes.  The truth is coming out about the pandemic and its not what it was made out to be. But nonetheless, these tyrannical blue governors have tasted the power of communism and they like it.  So they are exploiting their powers.  I personally don't think it's constitutional to force healthy nonsymptomatic people to wear masks.  It's ridiculous.  A blue power trip.

Now, I have no problem with people wearing masks.  In fact, I am grateful when my caregivers wear masks when they are symptomatic -- coughing and sneezing, runny nose.  I have always kept my closet stocked with masks for this purpose.  And I have no problem with people wearing masks of their own accord.  If they feel it's protecting them or others and they choose to wear a mask, then good for them.  And I do feel it's proper etiquette and courteous to wear a mask in public places if you are symptomatic-- coughing, sneezing, runny nose.  But I have a real problem with idiotic governors mandating/ordering EVERYONE to wear masks!  That is tyranny.  That is dictatorship.  That is communism.  And completely unnecessary.

First of all, wearing masks outdoors is ridiculous.  You're not going to catch a virus in fresh air.  The only exception I see to this is perhaps outdoor dining with someone who is symptomatic and coughing or sneezing on your face and food.  Asymptomatic people should never wear masks outside. It's useless.  Completely unnecessary.  It's actually comical to see people wearing masks outside. Especially alone.

What is the purpose of wearing a mask?  Do people even know the answer to this?  Why do surgeons wear masks in the operating room?  It is to prevent contaminating the open wounds they just created.  They are in very close contact with the surgical site -- obviously -- and coughing, sneezing, or even breathing near the open wound could easily contaminate it.  But what about average people going about their business day-to-day?

All the mask does is act as a barrier to coughs and sneezes.  It's the same thing as covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze.  That's all it does.  It's to prevent the microorganism laden large and medium-sized water droplets that are spewed out of your mouth when you cough or sneeze from going very far.  So why not just cover when you cough or sneeze?  Exactly!  That's my point.  But apparently many people don't.  It's just common courtesy if you ask me.

Dad used to pull his shirt collar above his nose to sneeze.  That works.  So does coughing or sneezing into your sleeve or elbow.  That's actually recommended now as the best way to cover a cough or sneeze because you don't contaminate your hands.  If you do cough or sneeze into your hands, immediately wash them with soap and water or use hand sanitizer.

The contaminated water droplets from your cough or sneeze can travel up to 200 feet according to a new MIT study.  We used to think they traveled about 60 feet or even just 15 feet.  But any of those scenarios would contaminate an entire room generally.  What do I mean by contaminate?

Your mouth, nose, and throat are colonized with bacteria.  Most of the microorganisms you cough or sneeze out are not pathogenic.  Meaning they won't cause disease.  But some are or could be.  This is in normal asymptomatic people.  If you're symptomatic, then of course you are spreading pathogens when you cough or sneeze.

But, even asymptomatic people can spread pathogens if they are pre-symptomatic, yet infected.  Or if they are carriers and are not affected by the pathogen.  Let me give you an example.  I am highly susceptible to strep throat.  I've had the dreaded illness numerous times throughout my life.  Some people actually carry the bacteria that causes strep throat in the back of their throat without ever becoming sick.  They are carriers.  The name of the bacteria that causes strep throat is beta hemolytic streptococcus pyogenes.  If you grow this bacteria on a petri dish in blood agar, you will see a clear zone around the colony because the bacteria lyses the red blood cells in the agar.  There is also a strain called alpha hemolytic streptococcus pyogenes which is not nearly as virulent.  On blood agar the colonies create a lighter red halo but not clear.  That's how you tell the difference in the strain.  Isn't microbiology fun?  I remember this so well because of my susceptibility to this particular bacteria.  Anyway, I digress.

My point is, that if someone who carries beta hemolytic streptococcus pyogenes coughs or sneezes, I could pick up the bacteria and get sick with strep throat.  And the carrier is none the wiser that they infected someone.  Same thing with rhinoviruses (common cold), influenza, and yes, coronaviruses.  You can be infected without having symptoms or are perhaps presymptomatic.  This is precisely why everyone is wearing masks now!  But symptomatic people are much more likely to spread disease than asymptomatic people.  Precisely because they are coughing and sneezing more, and the viral load or bacterial load is higher.  Meaning you are spewing out more pathogens when you cough or sneeze.

I often hear people with allergies claim as they cough or sneeze that it's just allergies (Dad used to tell me this all the time).  As if they are incapable of spreading pathogens.  That's not true.  They may not have a virus or bacteria that's causing the coughing or sneezing but they are still spewing billions of microorganisms when they cough or sneeze.  So, anyone with symptoms should really be cautious and courteous about coughing or sneezing and always cover.  Even if they know it's just allergies.

Another thing about spreading germs that most people might not think about is when they are alone in a room.  Some people think they don't need to cover coughs or sneezes if no one else is around.  But this is also false.  Because every cough or sneeze contains billions of microorganisms.  Without covering, those microorganisms are spewed up to 200 feet landing on every surface in the room.  A lot of those microorganisms can remain viable up to several days on hard surfaces.  So, for instance let's say for easy math purposes that a particular viral half-life is 12 hours.  And also for easy math purposes let's say there are 1 billion viruses on the surface.  Let's say a doorknob.  So someone sneezes at 6:00 PM and 1 billion viruses land on the doorknob.  At 6 AM the next day there are still 500 million viable viruses on the doorknob.  By 6 PM the next day, there are 250 million viable viruses hanging out on the doorknob.  By 6 AM the next day there are still 125 million viable viruses on the doorknob.  You get the idea.  So anyone touching that doorknob over the next couple of days is going to pick up the pathogenic virus on their hand and if they touch their face, they become infected.  This is how most airborne pathogens are spread.

This is why the best way to prevent the spread of disease is by washing your hands in soap and water.  That's the number one way to prevent spreading communicable diseases.  I actually studied handwashing in microbiology.  It was quite interesting.  As I'm sure you're aware, your skin is colonized with non-pathogenic bacteria.  Those colonies actually prevent pathogenic (disease causing) bacteria from colonizing you.  But our hands are always touching things and picking up all kinds of different pathogens all the time.  So our first experiment was to just touch the agar on the petri dish with our unwashed hands to see what would grow.  Then we washed our hands for different increments of time.  5 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds or something like that.  And then touched the agar on different petri dishes to see what would grow.  Interestingly, and I still remember the outcome, the unwashed hands did grow different pathogens.  But few colonies.  And the longer the handwashing, the fewer pathogens but more natural flora that grew.  So, it's true that the longer you wash your hands the better, to prevent the spread of pathogens.

In medical school, I actually participated in a study (they like to use medical students as guinea pigs) for hand sanitizer.  They had us put our hands in a solution containing Shigella, a pathogenic bacteria. For different time frames.  Then we would put the hand sanitizer on our hands to see if it was effective against killing the pathogenic bacteria. And also washed with plain soap and water.  It was actually quite an extensive experiment.  Over the course of a few weeks. The conclusion was that yes, the hand sanitizer did kill the bacteria.  But regular handwashing with soap and water was the most effective.  Interestingly, a few of my classmates ended up with Shigella skin infections -- must've had abrasions or cuts.  Thankfully I never did.

I went into all of that detail because I thought you would find it interesting.  But also to show that I have studied microbiology disease prevention.  So I know what I'm talking about.

So all that to say that handwashing is the best defense against disease.  And washing your hands longer is more effective.  This is why when you scrub into surgery you have to use a specific technique and scrub all the way up to your elbows.  I don't remember the exact time frame but it's several minutes of scrubbing when you scrub into surgery.

The second best way to prevent the spread of disease is cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.  Seems simple enough but so many people don't do it.  That's precisely why Idiot Inslee and other governors are ordering mandatory mask wearing.  So, after explaining the microbiology of disease transmission, you may think I would side with Idiot Inslee. But you would be wrong.

Knowing the microbiology behind pathogen transmission, I think it's foolish to mandate that everybody wear face masks.  I think people are perfectly capable of governing themselves and knowing when they should stay away from people or wear face masks -- i.e. if they are symptomatic and coughing and sneezing.  People who are asymptomatic absolutely do not need to wear face masks in every day life.  If they happen to cough or sneeze, they are perfectly capable of covering their mouth.  Which is exactly what the facemask would do.  There's absolutely no reason for asymptomatic people to be constantly covering with a face mask. Yes, face masks belong in hospitals, operating rooms, medical clinics, and on people who are symptomatic.  But not on asymptomatic people just going about their business.  And we certainly don't need the government taking our freedoms away by forcing people to wear face masks.  I thought all blue governors were pro-choice?  I guess that's only when it comes to killing babies.

Honestly, even when you are infected with a pathogen, most people's immune systems are more than capable of combating the pathogen and you have no idea you were even infected. Believe it or not, you are constantly breathing in all sorts of microorganisms, some of which are pathogenic, with every breath you take.  Your immune system easily takes care of the vast majority of those pathogens.  Occasionally something like flu comes along and you get sick.  That's life.  And really, I worry about the unforeseen detrimental consequences of constant mask wearing.  Entire healthy populations have never been forced into this nonconsensual guinea pig medically experimental situation before.  I can't imagine there won't be dire consequences for some people.  It can't be good to obstruct the flow of normal air in healthy people for such a long extended time period on a daily basis.  Thereby increasing carbon dioxide intake and decreasing oxygen intake.  Not to mention the long-term exposure to the buildup of microorganisms on the mask itself.

And, really, who actually wears the mask properly?  Every doctor's office I have visited in the past three or four months, nobody wears the mask right.  All the doctors I've seen are constantly touching the mask, adjusting it, while typing and writing notes in the treatment room.  Thereby contaminating the computer keyboard, the writing instrument, the paper.  Actually making it worse because the microorganisms concentrate on the mask and when it's touched, they transfer to the hand.  Making the concentration of possible pathogens even greater on their hands.  If doctors don't know how to properly wear surgical masks, or face masks, who does?

Idiot Inslee's tyrannical face mask wearing mandate reminds me of the terrible human experiments done by the Nazis.  It's unethical.  And I believe unconstitutional.

I certainly don't think the government should be forcing everybody to wear masks.  Idiot Inslee has no problem with allowing BLM domestic terrorist protests, riots, lootings, shootings, and all kinds of anarchy and violence in the name of "social justice".  No mention of those thugs not social distancing or not wearing masks.  But heaven forbid, normal, healthy, law-abiding citizens just going about their day-to-day lives and business are caught without a face mask.  They are not only given the evil eye or verbally chastised, but now they face a misdemeanor violation including a hefty fine and jail time.

Communist Idiot Inslee applauds violent lawbreakers while penalizing law-abiding citizens.  The guy doesn't have a brain in his head.  Idiot Inslee is an evil virtue signaler power tripping on his high horse.

Idiot Inslee needs to stick to letting thugs walk all over him and quit dictating ridiculous nonsensical tyrannical orders to the citizens of Washington.

That's my extremely educated, common sense two cents.