Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, January four. I'm Oscar Ramiors from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
Speaker 1: COVID cases continue to rise in the US as the
Speaker 1: omicron variant proves to be highly transmissible. The rise and
Speaker 1: infections has reignited the conversation over masks, which now has
Speaker 1: some doctors and healthcare systems saying cloth masks may not
Speaker 1: be enough, recommending that you pair them with surgical masks
Speaker 1: or upgrade to other options like K and nine masks.
Speaker 1: Nitty super Roman, science reporter at the Wall Street Journal
Speaker 1: joins us for What to Know. Thanks for joining us, Nitty, Hi,
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about some new developments with what's
Speaker 1: going on with COVID nineteen Right now, the O macron
Speaker 1: variant has proven to be very transmissible. We're seeing cases
Speaker 1: sore to new records all over the United States. Obviously,
Speaker 1: hospitalizations is a key thing to pay attention when we
Speaker 1: talk about it, because those are the worst cases. Though
Speaker 1: that those are the most troubling ones. But even those
Speaker 1: numbers have gone up. I know it's a numbers game
Speaker 1: with a lot of it. Doctors and health experts starting
Speaker 1: to say, you know, bring masks up in the conversation again.
Speaker 1: And I know that's a very contentious issue. A lot
Speaker 1: of people don't want to wear them things like that,
Speaker 1: But we're starting to see health experts say that cloth
Speaker 1: masks might not be enough. We might need to step
Speaker 1: up either double mask or get those K and K
Speaker 1: and really step up our game that way. So Niitty,
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about it. So we've
Speaker 1: seen masks come back up and conversation chiefly, I think,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, because experts are watered about how
Speaker 1: consmissible micron is among people who are not vaccinated, but
Speaker 1: also even among people who are. So though we know
Speaker 1: that vaccines are you know, a top form of checking
Speaker 1: the virus either from getting sick. Uh. Seriously, people are
Speaker 1: looking to other aspects of defenses against the virus, like masks,
Speaker 1: in order to stop this more transmissible variant to the
Speaker 1: extent that we can. Yeah, And you know, we're seeing
Speaker 1: the response already come from companies and other places. For example,
Speaker 1: my wife, she works in an office. They were supposed
Speaker 1: to go back to work this week after the holiday break.
Speaker 1: They sent an email out saying, nobody's coming back. We're
Speaker 1: working from home this week and now the only acceptable
Speaker 1: mask to wear in the office are the K and
Speaker 1: K which they provide them and all. But still they're
Speaker 1: they're setting those limits already, saying that you know, this
Speaker 1: is the only thing you can wear for now. That's
Speaker 1: really interesting. We've heard from doctors who are recommending that
Speaker 1: people switch over to a stronger version of the mask
Speaker 1: beyond just a cloth mask. I think since the beginning
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, there has generally been an accepted understanding
Speaker 1: among experts that the more sophisticated masks offer better protection,
Speaker 1: but that any kind of masking offers some level of
Speaker 1: the barriers against transmission of this virus. We know, and
Speaker 1: we have known for some time, that they are transmitted
Speaker 1: in droplets when you breathe in and read out, and
Speaker 1: people initially suspected that even the tinier, tinier particles might
Speaker 1: carry the virus, and since then it's been confirmed that
Speaker 1: they do transmit as well in these tiny droplets, and
Speaker 1: the more robust masks, the K and ninety five grade
Speaker 1: or the N ninety five grade, can better stop those
Speaker 1: tinier particles from spreading as well. And you know, with
Speaker 1: omcon being so widely prevalent, I think the thinking is
Speaker 1: that your chance of encountering this is increased. So if
Speaker 1: you can protect yourself and protect other people, this is
Speaker 1: something you you should be able to do. Right in
Speaker 1: your article, you posted an interesting graph that kind of shows,
Speaker 1: you know, how long it would take to be exposed
Speaker 1: to COVID. You know, if somebody was infected and wore
Speaker 1: a mask or didn't wear a mask, vice versa, what
Speaker 1: kind of mask, you know, and a person that was
Speaker 1: not infected, if they were in the same room, how
Speaker 1: long it would take. And if nobody's wearing anything, you know,
Speaker 1: in a matter of fifteen minutes, you've been exposed and
Speaker 1: you could be infected already. You know, if you start
Speaker 1: wearing surgical masks and ninety five masks, you know, it
Speaker 1: obviously takes a lot longer. If both people are wearing
Speaker 1: surgical masks, it could take up to an hour before
Speaker 1: you might be infected. If you're wearing these n ninety
Speaker 1: five mass it's like twenty five hours, you know. So
Speaker 1: the type of mask, the protections they provide, the better
Speaker 1: they are. Obviously they do help out a lot, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: and some of it has to do with the way
Speaker 1: they are structured in terms of the layers that they
Speaker 1: are placed one over the other. Some of the k
Speaker 1: and some of the surgical masks have a material that
Speaker 1: is like a plastic that has an electrostatic charge that
Speaker 1: traps the particles better, so better, you know, stops them
Speaker 1: from moving around. The other thing that experts point to
Speaker 1: really as far as making the most effective use of
Speaker 1: these is really the fit. So I know it's easy
Speaker 1: to have you if you have your glasses on and
Speaker 1: your mask underneath and you sort of shifted around so
Speaker 1: that it doesn't fog things up, but really having a
Speaker 1: super tight feel around your face is part of making
Speaker 1: sure that these are working as they ought to. Because
Speaker 1: inasmuch as you want the particles from being prevented from
Speaker 1: going through the masks, if they're coming up over your
Speaker 1: nose or you know, in gaps, that is something that
Speaker 1: what needs to be watching out for as well. We
Speaker 1: know that obviously the conversation is going around right now,
Speaker 1: that's why we're talking about it. But what is the
Speaker 1: official guidance from the CDC right now on this, Because
Speaker 1: they're not saying they're not, they're still you know, they
Speaker 1: want any anybody to mask up anyway as possible, just
Speaker 1: to help out as much. But they have even said,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe double masking is a smart choice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think there are some experts who would like the
Speaker 1: CDC to come out pretty specifically and say this mask
Speaker 1: over that mask, and say that some master that is another,
Speaker 1: or even recommend people use a certain kind of mask.
Speaker 1: The time this came up recently is when the CDC
Speaker 1: changed its isolation guidelines for people who have been infected
Speaker 1: with COVID nineteen, and they proposed that they can come
Speaker 1: away from isolation if there is symptomatic after five these potentially,
Speaker 1: but keep a mark on for a certain period of
Speaker 1: time after that to keep protection at its match. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see how the conversation continues around this. Obviously we're
Speaker 1: seeing the omicron variants spread very quickly, so just be
Speaker 1: safe and protect yourself. Nitty super Roman, science reporter at
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America.
Speaker 1: Don't forget effort today's big news stories. You can check
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