(00:18):
All right, my friends. Good afternoon. So I am going live. I was able to get on through my phone and as you can hear by my voice, I have a little cold, but don’t worry. It sounds much worse than it is. I actually feel okay, but I did just want to come on and have a few moments of conversation after the weekend. Today is Monday. So many places are starting to reopen. And the thing about that is that it’s not necessarily the best idea, but at this moment I don’t believe there is anything specific that we can do to stop that. The places that want to reopen are gonna reopen in places that don’t want to reopen, are not going to reopen. And the people that want to go out and do their thing are going to go out and do their thing.
(01:18):
So the key component here is that we have to make good decisions. Okay, we have to think about ourselves and we have to think what is going to be the best decision for ourselves and the safest decision for ourselves and the healthiest decision for ourselves. And what can we do to protect ourselves. Now I know that many people in our community have been going out during the quarantine, have been going out, you know, during this time to do grocery shopping, to go to a doctor to do various different things. I went out one time, I caught a cold. So the only thing I’m going to say is know what you’re dealing with and be careful with it. Okay. And don’t assume that because the president says something or the governor says something or your Senator says something that it’s necessarily factual. Okay. Or that it’s necessarily in your best interest because everyone is talking about covert 19 and many people have their own agenda for what they want from it, what they don’t want from it, what they stand to lose from it.
(02:36):
But I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t believe that any amount of money makes it worth losing one of my family members. I don’t think that any amount of money makes it worth losing one of my friends. I don’t think any amount of money makes it worth losing one of my patients. And I don’t think it’s worth any amount of money that makes it worth losing one of you. And you know, economy is economy. Money is money, money comes, money goes, we make it, we lose it, we make it, we spend it, we make some more okay where we don’t. But if you’re not alive, if you’re sick, if you’re on event, you don’t have the ability to do that. So my point in telling you this as always is stay safe. Okay. Make smart decisions and if you are going to go out then by all means you should be masking.
(03:33):
Regardless of what anybody tells you, anybody who you know, who tells you that a mask is not going to be of help to you or a mask can actually make it more likely that you will catch the Corona virus or covert 19. You know, is assuming that you’re an idiot and that you cannot that you can’t use a mass properly. Now, absolutely. You know, if you’re going to use gloves, there’s a way to do it. You don’t want to go and touch every single thing that there is out there and then touch your face with the gloves. You don’t want to be moving the mask all around, but use your, your, your head and you know, protect yourself. I am going to have no choice. I’m going to be out in the community at certain points. I will protect myself and the way that I will protect myself is the same way that I advise you to protect myself.
(04:24):
I will have protect yourself. I will have a mask. I will have something above me to help keep my mask on. I will, depending on where I go, wear gloves I will wear multiple pairs of gloves so that I can take them off when I touch something that I, to come in contact with me, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. When I get to where I’m going, I will take off my clothes that I was wearing outside. I will put them immediately in the laundry. I will take a shower, I will protect myself. You know, there’s a lot of decisions that are being made now unilaterally. Not based in science, okay? But if you want to know what people do, I mean, you know, again, the white house, and I don’t mean to make these political, but it’s kind of hard because so much of what we talk about today is politically based and not medically based and not scientifically based.
(05:23):
But just notice that now that somebody in the white house has tested positive on, now everybody’s wearing a mask, okay? Now everybody’s taking precautions that we were told wouldn’t be needed. Okay? So the idea is, as always with anything else, err on the side of caution. Err on the side of making sure that you’re okay. Err on the side of making sure that you’re protected. We are not responsible for other people’s actions. We rarely, if ever, can actually control other people’s actions, but can control ourselves and we can take responsibility for ourselves. So given the choice of not you know, not being safe or staying home or not being able to guarantee your safety going out, then by all means, stay in. Okay. But we, in my opinion, are not close to being ready for people to be out and together again and no longer social distancing.
(06:25):
And that includes pulmonary rehab. We are not opening our center at this moment and it will likely be quite awhile before we do open our center again. And the reason for that is because we don’t want people taking chances. And the other aspect of it is that I have seen a lot of covert patients. There is a huge need for covert rehab. Absolutely. But do we want to be bringing covert patients up and down in an elevator, in a public space, exposing people? No. So as always, like everything else that I ever say to you, err on the side of caution. Err on the side of universal precautions. Okay. Meaning that we assume that somebody is positive and act accordingly. Protect your face, protect your nose and mouth with a mask. Protect your eyes with either goggles or big glasses. And you know what to do.
(07:21):
Wash your hands a lot. Don’t touch your face after you’ve touched other things. Don’t let people in and out of your house, but don’t get the idea. You know, when they talk about things opening or not opening, they ain’t talking about our community. Okay? They ain’t talking about our communities. So the idea is that right now that the strong let the people who think they’re invincible, but the people who thinks that their rights are being violated by trying to keep them safe, go out. Let’s see what happens. Okay. As far as our community, wait for the all clear. Okay. Wait for the all clear. And you know what? It’s gonna take a long time. It’s going to take a long time. It’s not going to be in a week. It’s not going to be in a month. And you will know when things are okay if and when we opened the pulmonary wellness and rehabilitation center because that will tell you that I am confident asking my patients to come out in public, take public transportation, take a taxi.
(08:20):
You take this, that the other thing, and be in contact with my staff until I’m comfortable with that, we will never do it. Okay? We have a perfect record in the 20 plus years that the pulmonary wellness center has been alive. We have never lost a patient. Okay. The average, I want to tell you something to scare you even more, but average number of deaths in cardiopulmonary testing and exercise is three in 10,000 exercise sessions. We have done over 110 exercise, 110,000 exercise sessions. Excuse me, we’ve never lost a patient. And that is because we err on the side of caution. We err on the side of over monitoring. We err on the side of being more careful, not less careful. And if we’re not sure, we don’t take the risk. If we don’t know if the boat floats, we are not putting it on the water.
(09:14):
If we don’t know if the plane flies, we’re not taking it up in the air. Your safety is very, very important to me and it should be very important to you. Okay? You’re going to hear a lot of things, a lot of people with very, very conflicting you know, agendas. And that’s what it really is. My agenda is to keep you safe, to keep my family safe, to keep my friends safe, to keep my patients safe. And this is the way you do it. Are we going to have to make some sacrifices? Absolutely, but not human sacrifices. Okay? Not human sacrifices. Like the idea is not that, you know, okay, you sacrifice your life. Okay? There will be time to handle things later on. Down the road now is not the time. And you’re going to see it. You’re going to see people make bad choices.
(10:02):
They’re already doing it. You’re going to see people go out. You’re going to see people congregate. You’re going to see people say, Hey, you know what? We should all just get the virus and then we’ll have herd immunity. Okay? But we’re not looking to thin the herd by 50%. Okay? And we’re certainly not looking to thin the herd of the greatest generation of our time and our nation’s history. So stay safe. My friends, like I said, I will give you the all clear when it’s time. I will be at some point soon going out into a public escapade. In which I will have to come in contact with people. I will be hopefully taking you along for the ride and I will show you how it’s done. But stay safe. Don’t listen to other people who have an agenda. Ask yourself, where is that news coming from? You know, ask yourself, what is their agenda? Do they care about me? I promise I care about you. I want you to do well. I want you to stay alive. I want you to stay healthy. And you know what? We’re not asking you to stay in a hole in the wall like Anne Frank did for 708. You’re home. Okay? You’re not stuck at home. You’re safe at home. Stay safe, my friends. Have a great day. Bye bye.