THE RE-OPENING OF NYC (AND ANYWHERE ELSE)!: MONDAY, 06/08/2020

(00:06):

Good morning, my friends. So today is Monday. I believe it is the 8th of June and I’m coming on early today because today is the quote official reopening of New York city and what I’m hoping by coming on early and also by posting on my personal page instead of just in the group, is that I will be able to reach as many people as possible. And my hope is that maybe some of the people that hear this will recognize that my agenda is to keep you safe as it has been. And my experience, which is nearly 30 years as a cardiovascular and pulmonary clinical specialist rehabilitation specialist, and nearly 20 years as a New York state EMT, including during the SARS epidemic. You know, I have a little bit of experience with this and the thing is that I have grave concerns. So I just went out for a walk around my neighborhood, not just for the hell of it.

(01:13):

I had to do something. And I have to tell you, I am not impressed. And not only am I not impressed, I am very concerned with, you know, and it’s, it’s interesting because when it comes to masking, when it comes to, you know, PPE, when it comes to protecting each other and ourselves, when it comes to social distancing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, we tend to it’s almost like when we look at it’s like, we tend to assign some kind of judgment to it and I look around and I say to myself, well, what is it? Is it that people don’t know, is it that people don’t understand? Is it that people don’t care? And I don’t think there’s going to be one simple answer to that that essentially that essentially you know, classifies everybody’s feelings as to why they do or what they don’t do.

(02:14):

I think it’s difficult when we get mixed messages from the government. I think it’s difficult when we get one message from Washington, another message from the state, another message from the city, another message from the media, depending upon what channel you listen to. Again, I can assure you I, I think you have watching me for a long time. I’ve been around for a long time. I have been broadcasting about Corona virus every day since this started. And I think that you will agree that I have not steered you wrong yet, including closing the pulmonary wellness and rehabilitation center on March on January on March 10th, sorry, way before the city closed down and also re re recommending masks to people since day one, regardless of what anybody else said, and also never wavering on masks. Okay. And the thing is that you know, when I talk about things, okay, when I talk about things I, I talk about what I know and I talk about what I’ve done, not something I’ve read, not something I’ve heard, not something they told me in school, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

(03:30):

So anything I talked to you about are things that I’ve done myself okay. Including flying. So someone asked me about flying. I flew to LA and back. Okay. And you know, again, how do I feel about it? I have mixed feelings about it, but I didn’t feel like I was at a particular risk. I super suited for this. I double clothed for this. I double masked for this. I goggled for this. I took super precautions. Now, one thing I want to talk about for everybody is the concept of universal precautions. Okay. Universal precautions is something in medicine, which is the idea that everybody is a potential source of exposure. Okay. Not a probable source, but a potential source of exposure. And so what that means is that if we assume that any person we’re going to come in contact with is a potential source of exposure.

(04:24):

And if you’re going out, if you’re getting around, if you’re interacting with other people, if you’re going to public places, then I don’t care how careful you think you are being, you are a potential source of exposure. So, you know, for all the people that are saying, Oh, I’ll be careful for all the people that are saying you know, don’t worry, I’ll be okay. Or for the people that saying you know, I saw something today, it said something like person, Corona virus won’t happen and won’t happen to me. Or I won’t get coronavirus. Coronavirus says gay Mon or challenge accepted. Okay. Again, how do you take the best care of yourself? Okay. First and foremost, social distancing. Okay. The ideal I’m going to go from most restrictive to least restrictive. So let’s put it this way. If you have the opportunity to stay home.

(05:25):

Okay. If you have the option, so let’s go from safest to least safe. So if you have the opportunity to stay home, you’re independent enough that or you have the ability you’re you’re, you have the means to not have anybody come in and out. Okay. If you have the means to be self sufficient and not being able to you know, and you don’t have to go out, you don’t have to go grocery shopping, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Well, guess what? You have almost zero of catching Corona virus or anything else. Okay. So if you don’t have any exposure to it, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to get it. Okay. This isn’t something that’s going to sneak into your bed. It’s not something that’s going to you know, it’s not something that is going to come after you. It’s not going to come looking for you, essentially.

(06:19):

You have to look for it. Okay. And that means you have to come in contact with it. But again, the idea of universal precautions are that any time I may potentially come in contact with blood, with body fluids. Okay. And in the case of the flu, in the case of pneumonia, in the case of the common cold, in the case of coronavirus, okay. I’m in a situation where something is potentially airable okay. We have a lot of chance at potential exposure that is beyond our control. So it’s like when I hear it, people saying things like okay well avoid people, coughing and sneezing, like duh, but how many people say attention please set your watches because in five minutes from now, I am going to sneeze. Or how many people say attention set your watches because in seven, seven minutes from now, I will be coughing.

(07:21):

Okay. so, you know, Muhammad in, in Pakistan, you’re asking a question you’re asking how long can one be quarantined? You know, the answer is, I don’t know. Okay. But the answer is, you know, so if you don’t care, okay, or not, if you don’t care, but if you have this concept that, you know what, we’re opening up and throwing caution to the wind and whatever happens, happens. Okay. And a lot of people are going to get sick and a lot of people are gonna die. And then whoever’s left. May have immunity. Okay. I don’t know. I don’t know. Okay. And Frank Head in an annex for 700 plus days during world war II to hide from the Nazis. Okay. So my question to you is, you know, not what would you do for a Klondike bar? Okay. But people, we have to be realistic about this and we have to prioritize this.

(08:18):

Okay. So people here, you know, I get it. I hear the complaints. Oh, I’ve been inside for three months. Oh, I miss this. I miss that. Oh, I haven’t gotten my haircut, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Let me tell you what you have done so far. If you’re listening to this, you’ve stayed alive. Okay. So to me, is it worth it? Go out, get your hair done. Have a spa day, have two misuses at once. Get a couple’s massage, whatever it is. Okay. Is that worth it? Okay. Is that worth it? If two weeks later you get sick or worse, or if two weeks later, your mom or dad gets sick or worse, or two weeks later, you are brother, sister, cousin, you know, coworkers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, get sick. Okay. Look, this is not a good situation for me. I’m not working.

(09:16):

I’m not making any money. Okay. I run a pulmonary wellness and rehabilitation center. Okay. Which means that my patients are the oldest sickest most at risk patients in the world. And what do I say to them? I say to them the same exact thing that I’ve been saying to them for the past 30 years. Okay. Which is that we must protect ourselves. Okay. We must protect ourselves. So what this is like, okay. Is there’s a dragon outside. Okay. The dragon is outside. The dragon is you know, scorching people. Okay. And the way that we can stay safe from this dragon, we stay in our homes. Right. Because for whatever reason, this dragon can’t get inside a New York city apartment. Okay. We’ve all stayed in our homes. Guess what? The dragon is not scorching anybody. Why? Cause he can’t get inside our homes. Okay.

(10:07):

But guess what? Nobody has slayed the dragon yet. Okay. Nobody has slayed the dragon yet. So the thing is that as soon as those doors open and we start going outside again, people are going to get scorched. Okay. It’s like saying, Hey, you know what? There are no car accidents. Okay. There are no car accidents because nobody’s driving. Okay. If nobody drives, guess what? The chance of a car accident is zero. If you don’t go in a car, you can’t have a car accident. That’s simple. Okay. But the things that I have been telling you and the things that I have been telling my own community, which is the cardiovascular community, the pulmonary community, the elderly population yes, I’m really 78 is the same things that keep you safe from Corona virus. So the same things that keep you safe from the flu pneumonia, common, cold exacerbation of your underlying condition.

(10:57):

The way that you protect yourself from those are the same exact ways you protect from coronavirus. So again, so if you’re home, if nobody comes in or out, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, there’s zero chance. Okay. There’s zero chance. Now if you’re home and you’re staying home because you have an underlying medical condition, but somebody is going in and out of your house, guess what everybody in your house is that potential risk. Okay. I’m sorry to say that is a, is it a probable risk? The truth is we don’t know. It depends who they saw. It depends how many people they saw. It depends how long they were seeing other people for. It depends your situation in your house. So in other words, if somebody is going to work every day and somebody at their workplace has Corona virus. Okay. And then guess what?

(11:46):

There’s a pretty good chance that they’re going to get coronavirus. Okay. If that person is going in and out of their home and they live in a studio apartment, well guess what? There’s a pretty good chance that everyone in that studio apartment is going to potentially get Corona virus. Okay. Now, if you have the ability for everybody to stay in their own room for everybody to social distance, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But if you’re going out and back every day, okay. And you have somebody at home who’s potentially at risk, which is somebody now listen to this also. Okay. Because at the beginning we said, Hey, it’s only the elderly. It’s only the sick people with underlying respiratory diseases. People who are diabetic people with cardiovascular disease, people with kidney disease, people with liver disease, people with cancer.

(12:39):

Right. But I know plenty of young, healthy people that have gotten it. I know plenty of young, healthy people that have suffered with it. And I know young, healthy people who have died from it. Okay. So again, if there were an ice age outside and going outside would freeze you. I think we’d all stay inside. Okay. if there were a firestorm outside and going outside would burn you. I think we’d all stay inside. Okay. I don’t think any of us would go outside. So what do we do about this? Okay. Look, I get it. I recognize it. The city’s opening, the country’s opening. Okay. I recognize there’s nothing. I personally am going to be able to do with this and you know, do about this. Okay. About the country, opening about the city, opening about the protests. And again, with the protest, believe me, I feel for these people, if you know me, you know that I’ve, I am with you 1000000%, but I don’t want you going out and getting hurt.

(13:40):

Okay. I don’t want you going out and you know, putting yourself and other people at risk. So let’s talk about what you can do. Okay. First and foremost, social distancing. Okay. Six feet is kind of an arbitrary rule. Okay. It’s kind of like, okay. Six feet is like from here to there. Okay. So from here to there, right? Monk, monk, would you say this is six feet amongst says this is six feet. Okay. So listen, six feet. Okay. How many of you are like me? And come from a sense of family of super sneezers. Okay. How many people are like me and come from a salmon family of super snoozers. Okay. I could tell you this six feet is not going to be enough in most cases, unless you take other precautions. Okay. And so what are those other precautions? Do we mask or not to mask?

(14:38):

Okay. Unfortunately again, unfortunately this message has been so distorted into the mask being like gang colors, which is like, if you’re a mask, you’re a jet. And if you’re not wearing a mask, you’re a shark. Then the idea is that people are going to be making decisions based on the wrong things. They’re going to be making decisions based upon emotion. They’re going to be making decisions based on ideology, but we have to make decisions based upon science. Okay. So again, this morning I went out for a walk in Midtown Manhattan, and this is what I saw. Some people are wearing masks properly. Some people are wearing masks, improperly, and there’s a whole host of ways that you can wear masks improperly. And some people are not wearing masks at all. So again, my question is, is it that they don’t know? Is it that they don’t understand?

(15:41):

Is it that they don’t care? What is it? What is it? Okay, so let’s talk about this. So there’s a question there do face shields help. And the answer is yes. Okay. Now I’m not saying you go out in a full body condom. Okay. That’s not what I’m saying, but what I’m saying is understand that how do these things change? Okay. Or transmit? How do these things transmit? So guess what? If I get Corona virus on my hand, I could be holding a handful of coronavirus. And if I hold this out away from me and I run to the sink and I wash my hand vigorously for 30 seconds with an antibacterial soap. Okay. Then guess what? Corona virus has gone. Okay. Corona virus is only going to enter through the mucus membrane. Okay. So what are the mucus membranes? It can enter through your mouth.

(16:37):

It can enter through your nostrils. It can enter through your eyes. So you have five points. Okay. You have five points on your head that a Corona virus can enter. It can’t really enter through your ears unless you have some kind of a, I mean, it would be highly unlikely that it would enter through your ears. Okay. Unless there’s some kind of break in the system. Okay. But let’s talk about eyes, nose, and mouth. Okay. So if you’re wearing a mask properly and you’re also wearing goggles, well, guess what you have now goggled, right? You’ve now goggled to protect your eyes. You have protected your nose and you’ve protected your mouth. And let me just be clear about something. Okay? People like things to be simple. Okay. They like it to be able to fit on a MI. Right? And there’s people who say, well, guess what?

(17:31):

When I’m asked, I’m asked to protect you. And when you mask UMass to protect me. So the people who think that they’re masking to protect someone else discount the fact that that mask, trust me, that mask definitely protects you. Right? That mask definitely protects you too. So for example, the best protection goggles mask above your nose, down to your mouth, tight seal, keeping it on. Not up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, touch it, touch it, touch it, touch your face, touch your eyes. Right. And the thing about this is that when you’ve done that you’ve covered 100% of the potential entry points for coronavirus. Okay? So now let’s say there’s no goggles, but you have this, okay? Your mask is covered. Covering your nose and your mouth tight seal. Not up down, not up down, not up down.

(18:30):

You’ve now covered 60% and you’re leaving your two eyes exposed. Now here’s the thing while Corona can, or while bacteria or virus or fungus can enter through your eyes, okay, you have a much greater chance of, in other words, you’re not going to breathe it in through your eyes, into your lungs. If you breathe it in through your nose, if you breathe it in through your mouth, okay, it’s a direct route to your lungs. And although we know that there are many, many different systems involved, okay? The respiratory system is particularly hard hit. And the respiratory system is particularly hard hit if you are already compromised in some way. Okay. So that could be pulmonary disease, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity liver disease, kidney disease, cancer and a lot of the treatments that go with this, or if you’re immunocompromised you know, if you’re immunocompromised, yes.

(19:30):

Wearing eyeglasses would be a help. So let me put it to you this way. Okay. And this is the best way that I’ve heard to describe it. And sometimes the best way to describe things is in the grossest way. Because people remember this, let’s say neither one of us are wearing pants. Okay. And I pee on you. Right. It sounds gross. Right. But if neither of us are wearing pants and IP on you guess what? You get very, very, very wet right now. Let’s say you put on a pair of pants. I’m not wearing pants. And let’s say IP on you again. Right. So now guess what? You’ve gotten it on your pants. It’s slows the ability of my pee to get to your leg. And if you take your pants off super fast and wash your legs, well, guess what you dealt with the problem.

(20:29):

Okay. But now think of it like this. Imagine if you’re wearing pants and I’m wearing pants and I try to pee on you guess what? Unless they had some kind of super pee, right. You’re protected. That’s same thing with a mask. Okay. And again, unfortunately, humans, listen to me. Okay. As a race and I quote this line a lot. Okay. And it’s, it’s, it’s Al Pachino talking in any given Sunday when he says we either win as a team or we die as individuals. Okay. And again, wake up world and understand that, you know, how many signals do you need? You know, there’s an old saying where they say, you know, there was a flood and there was a religious man in a boat. And a no, a religious man is up in the water. And he’s up to his waist in water. And a boat comes by, they say, get in the boat.

(21:29):

He says, no, I’m a very religious man. I pray to God every day, God will save me an hour later. He’s up to his chest and water. And they say, you know Hey get in the boat, we’ll save you. And they say, no, no, no. I read the Bible every day. God’s not gonna, God’s not gonna let me drown. Next thing. He’s up to his neck. And a helicopter, you know, sends down a rope and they say, grab the rope. We’ll pull you to safety. He says, listen, I read the good book. Every day. I go to church every Sunday. I [inaudible], God won’t let me drown. You know what happened to that man? He drowned. And when he went up to the, the pearly Gates, he said, God, I don’t understand this. He said, I go to church every Sunday or temple.

(22:10):

Every Saturday says I he says, I you know, I read the good book. I do this. I do that. I take the Eucharist or I eat the Mata, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. How could you let me drown? And he says, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What more do you want? Okay. So we’ve gotten colossal storms. We’ve had tsunamis, we’ve had hurricanes. We’ve had the plague now. Okay. We’ve got a super virus. Okay. And trust me, there are people who for decades have always said that a superbug is going to be the end of the human race. Okay. And I only say this because guess what? You don’t see animals suffering now. And in fact, when humans and human instincts were shut down animal in nature, animals and nature thrive. Okay? So until we start to work together as a community, as a human race, but also as a part of a global community and a universal earth community, that also includes animals and nature.

(23:17):

Then guess what? If it’s not this time, it’s only a matter of time people. So again, I am trying to get this message out. I know I can’t control anybody. I know I can’t get everybody to listen to me, but let me say this. I am speaking to the people who want to stay safe and trust me. People can survive. Not having a lot of money. Okay. People can survive. Not having a lot of money. People can survive death. Nobody so far has survived death. Okay. Now one person, actually, if we want to go and we want to say people who died and come back to life. Okay? So some people have, but eventually it gets to them. Okay. The point is, I don’t know what it is that you think is worth taking a life and death situation. Okay. Let me give you another analogy.

(24:12):

I give you a jar of jelly beans, right? I give you a jar of purple and gold. Jellyby it’s a massive jar of jelly beans, right? Hundreds of, of jelly beans, hundreds of jelly beans, right? Thousands of jelly beans. And I tell you that there’s one jelly bean in this jar, that if you eat that jelly bean, it’s going to kill you. How many jelly beans are you going to eat? Or if I give you a gun and this gun can hold, it has a thousand spots for bullets and only one bullet. Right? How many of you are going to play Russian roulette with it? Well, that’s what it’s like. Okay. And I don’t mean this to scare you. Although again, I’m not going to say I don’t mean it to scare you, but I’m not trying to scare you out of your mind. I will say that I am trying to scare you into your right mind.

(25:11):

Okay. And again excuse me, don’t get scared. I’m alone. Outside. again, I don’t know what the answer is per se. Okay. I don’t know exactly what the answer is, but I know that if you are at high risk or if you are at some risk, which is everybody, please, if you can stay home, if you can stay isolated, if you can please take the precautions. Okay. And if you want to read more about these precautions or you want to hear more about these precautions, pulmonary wellness.org, go under Corona virus info, please stay safe. My friends have a great day.