hi there. i'm deon lem. welcome to our program. we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today we'll talk about all the covid-19 headlines, but first let's dig into a study of masks and the effectiveness of them preventling covid-19. with us today is dr. monica gandhi. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> you were part of a group of doctors who penned this study in the jury room of general internal medicine about mask wearing. we have known for so long that wearing a mask protects others

from particulates we may be breathing out into the air. your research says it's effective on the masked wearer sthems. what did you find? >> what we were looking at actually was to take a step back, the cdc when they told the public to wear a mask, they said do this to protect others. they made that announcement on april 3rd. what our study shows and what other studies have show is actually, the masks have a beneficial effect on the wearer as well. there are science studies that show if you wear a mask lock virus getting in. if you block the majority of virus that gets in, you either don't get transmission or if you're unluckily enough to get infected, you're more likely to get a mild disease. that's based on what wie seen over time with this infection. over time in places that mask, we see milder symptoms of

infection if you do get infected and we've seen lots of studies that mask it. >> why is it that it's a milder case? is it because of the amount of particulates or the percentage of the virus is smaller when you're wearing a mask? >> you know, the theories that are putting forth is when you get less of a viral dose in, you're able to manager it better. your immune system doesn't go crazy. why this virus harms us is because our immune system goes crazy. they let out all sorts of things and steroids to calm the viral infection down in severe disease. you're able to manage things better with your immune system when you get less of a dose. that is the theory. we and other people are working

on proving that, because it's hard to prove. i will say one thing. we cannot give people more virus and see how little or sick they get. it would be unethical. so extrapolating from animal studies. >> i did need your findings that the sars outbreak, the epidemic that happened i believe early in the 2000s, that in some ways helped you get to some of these findings when it came to covid. >> yes. there was a small amount of sars, the 2003 cousin of this one but a cousin that got contained way better than the covid-19 pandemic. it was totally infected 8,098 people. that virus is the same, the more virus you got in, the more sick you got. and so we -- it would seem in the models especially with it cousin.

and looking at ep deem logically speaking and you can't say this exactly causes it but just in the world, faces that mask, they have milder disease. they have less severe illness. japan and south korea, hong kong, vietnam, thailand, for example, great compliance rate, more than 90%. someone said we have 110% of masking. they have little severe illness and death. it's likely they just get less in. >> before asking questions about masking itself, why is it that we're seeing so much more masking in these countries in asia? growing up even my own mother and father would say this is what you do. it's the pligolite thing if you feeling a little under the weather. is it a cultural issue? >> i did a south korean program yesterday with two south korean professors and they said we

think it's polite to wear a mask. in the united states they think it's impolite. there's no harm in protecting yourself by wearing a mask. mask wearing, especially since the sars pandemic of 2003 is not unusual. it's not weird. it's atlantic completely understood. like you said, in many asian countries, including the asian countries who are, by the way, doing great right now. people are open, they're wearing masks, they're not having large clouds, the school is open and there's very little illness. the u.s. we're not used to it. not a single one of us, maybe a couple realized in 1918 and even then there was fights about masks. it's not culturally our practice to my our face. >> it's something we grew up

with. that brings me to my next question, something i'm interested in. i've seen masks come in all shapes, all sizes. some are cloth bandanas, even some viewers on facebook.com/abc7news are asking about the effectiveness of these and n 95 the way to go? there are so many questions around the type of mask to wear. >> this is a great question. the one thing that the cdc did that was great this week and i hope the viewers saw what they did, is on monday they changed the messaging to masks protecting you and others. that was -- april 3rd was the first time. so april 9th. we have a wonderful seven-month later, seeing masks protecting you and others. in that brief they give the features of masks that are most protective for you.

what are the ones more protective for you? two ply and more. if you're going to do two ply. use a higher thread count of cotton. higher threat count, two ply. or the surgical masks, which by definition, this is pol propylene and it has an electrostatic component. two ply cotton math with high thread count. i looked on line the other day to find these masks. they're available. you can just say thread count. they have to go over your ear so it's fighted on your face. that's the important thing about the bandana is sometimes stuff can come out. it's ok if it's around your face? the neck gator is mesh. it's light materials designed to be light material, but it doesn't block virus as well, because it's too thin.

>> i'm fascinated by this because i've never heard someone be so specific about tread count or the composition of a mask, pol propylene or whatever you called it. >> right, right. yeah. >> i think the people are confused and that's would we're seeing on facebook right now. it's been confusing messaging and you are all for perhaps standardizing a level of masks, so there's some kind of regulation. >> yes. we actually wrote a paper and submitted it yesterday saying we need standardization for masks in this country. why? we've be so confusing about mask messaging. m i am so sorry to the public. first it was wear a mask, don't wear a mask, protect others. it is now becoming clear. it protects you and it protects others. we firmly believe that we should standardize masks which will enhance wearing because people will believe me. it has science behind it that it

does. while we're waiting for that pushing of standardization that we're going to be pushing with the president-elect administration, the wall with pushing for that, i would just -- you guys know either a surgical or if you want it to be pretty -- and i want my mask to be pretty -- high thread count, at least two ply. >> if there was any take away, the quality of the mask, what it's made of and the fact that it protects yourself from the virus itself. so many thanks to you, mr. monica gandhi for joining us. we'll try to get to more questions in the commercial break. thank you. from local closures to national headlines we're going to get into everything related to covid-19 with dr. patel. reminder, we're taking a how about poor fred wilson? what a shame. so soon after retiring. i hear his wife needed help with the funeral expenses. that's ridiculous!

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thank you so much for staying with us. we're going to continue our topic of covid-19 because there are plenty of local and national topics to talk about. joining me now to break it down is abc 67 news special correspondent dr. patel. doctor, so much to get to. i listened in on california health secretary's briefing of the state today. i mean, the message is very clear. he is concerned about a rise in cases. we're talking about a 20% faster rate of rise than we have seen. did you see the surge coming? >> it's grim, but to be completely honest, i think a lot of us saw a surge coming, but the rates that you're describing, a lot of us are surprised by. we knew that once people got a

little fatigue, people are getting colder and staying inside, we see a rise. that's why we worry about you in winner. this happened rise is insane. a lot of us are worried that people may not be as vigilant as they were in spring or summer. >> we'll talk an the covid fatigue later. but something that i took away that was huge in reference to the holidays coming up was that travel advisory, the recommendation that people only travel for these essential purposes, that if you come into california you need to quarantine for 15 days. is this a approach not to make it a mandate but a recommendation? is that going to be effective? why do you think that was the messaging in what he had to say today? >> to be honest, i think the messaging itself is important enough to get people to pay attention. because when the northeastern states were first doing a 14-day mandate, other parts of the

country has this almost false perception that they were fine. but the minute you fly to massachusetts or new york, you all of a sudden think, oh, my gosh, do i quarantine? maybe i shouldn't travel at all. that's the right mentality we need to adopt out here out west because our cases are going up. i'm not a policy expert, i don't know how you would enforce a mandatory mask. it will get more people talking about essential travel and we'll be able to hold each other accountable for these measures, i believe. >> dr. galley mentioned that if it came down to this he would not be opposed to making something mandate attorney but right now giving us the guidance that we need to stay safe. on that note, chicago's mayor lori light foot announced a stay at home advisory, asked them to cancel thanksgiving plans. do you think that is too strict or is that what it's going to

take to get this under control? >> off the bat it sounds very strict. people will use like draconian measures band we shouldn't do that. whatever the advice is from national leaders, policy experts, etc., people are going to do a little less than that. they're going to be a little more lenient. a strict stay at home measure might be what people need to hear. cases are spiking all over the country as opposed to regional areas which we've seen over the last seven months. we all had a direction similar to chicago's and we hunkered down for two weeks, 14 days, that's it. we could seriously curb the spread. we're continuously traveling and propagating the spread right now. >> with the covid as well. we just had halloween. we had people wanting to get out. we're itching to do events and be part of social gatherings.

governor newsome himself catching a lot of criticism. he attended a large dinner party at the french laundry. how can he explain his own behavior. we've spoken many times, you and i, about setting an example for others. this is a credibility issue here. >> it is. and i read about the situation and about the dinner they went to, according to the french laundry restaurant he sat outside. we talk about the standards that restaurants are setting and why it may be safe to sit outside as well. what i think all leaders need to do, everyone needs to do is make sure they're transparent up front instead of trying to play a game of catchup. someone were to hear governor newsome went to a restaurant and heard nothing else, they may think, you know what? it's not that big a deal.

i can go to my friend's house because governor newsome went to a birthday party, instead of hearing all those details. we need a lot more transparency. we have to have people be accountable. >> i like what you said about nipping it in the bud quickly. when people do something bad and don't double down on the messaging of what really happened, they try to mask it up and try to hide it. it just gets worse, it seems if you try to hide it. >> even imagine if somebody went to an outside dinner and made a very public case of how they were keeping it safe, almost modelling behavior and saying this is how we're going to do the outdoor barbecue, happy however or whatever. that was a positive message. >> i know we have a minute to go before our next break. something else that has made

headlines is elon musk. he caught some attention after tweeting about taking four rapid tests. two were negative and two were positive. what's your reaction to that? that doesn't give me much hope as far as the accuracy of these things. >> the wording of the tweet, at the top he said something bogus is going on. everyone thinks like fraud, inaccuracy, whatever's going on. they tape rapid tests are not as accurate as the pcr tests. even the fda aside positive test should be confirmed. we saw this publicly with the white house. so when elon musk tweets something that's happening, same test, same day, same nurse, people start to think doubt. we've had this huge era of mistrust with the health care system. this feet, the way it's worded

is not good. he's also communicated other misinformation issues as well, so i think this is a large scale celebrity inspirational voice that needs to be held accountab accountable. >> it always goes back to your message of trusting the science. we'll talk more in the commercial break especially about rapid testing and the warriors. make sure to join us on facebook.com/abc 7 because that's where we're

all right. once again joining us, dr. patel talking all things covid. nothing is off the table. let's continue our conversation from the last segment about some headlines that are making news and his reaction to them. the first being at least five passengers on the first caribbean cruise in months, they have now tested positive. everyone was tested before they got on. how is this possible? the first thought that i had was

perhaps they were asymptomatic and maybe they had taken a rapid test? weigh in on this for us dr. patel. >> my first response is what do you expect? it's a cruise. it's a case we're rising -- at the start of the pandemic, you're in a closed space, sharing a lot of things. someone could have been asymptomatic or could have gotten a test during an incubation period. there's also the fact that somebody caught it on the actual boat. maybe somebody didn't follow the rules. who knows? this is proof that every single measure needs to be taken into account, not just testing but also space, distancing, masks, gent las vegas. i heard different reports of when masks were mandated on the cruise as well. that's another possible misstep. >> you know those risky behaviors.

you know, dining itself, you're taking the mask on and putting identity down when you're eating and drinking. it's hard to take all these precautions into consideration especially during a holiday. >> fact of the matter is nobody actually wants to. it's no fun. i think it comes down to risk mitigation. we play these safety things on the air and zero risk system a thing. unless you are staying at home and completely sheltering in place, there's a small amount of risk to everything we do. running errands, all of it. make the odds of spreading this as low as possible. i think it's important that people take every factor into account. >> looping the vaein of getting back to normal. i know you've been reading up on the effect of children. young people especially, they're experiencing some fomo maybe.

they're missing out on things like graduations and celebrations. what is the effect on this group of individuals in our public? i mean, they must be having some mental trauma. >> absolutely. this is the year of fomo for everyone. here's an issue without a license and teens. it doesn't work on a system of gratification like adults do. they don't think next year i'm going to get this goal. they think about athletic events, graduations, birthday parties, school dances. that's what they look forward to. these are the small events that build our memories throughout high school and they're missing all of it right now. i want to add some optimism and add that kids are extremely resilie resilient. i think our children will be stronger because of what they're going through. it doesn't mean it's not taking a toll on them right now. a recent cdc study said that it's about a 30% increase of

e.r. visits related to mental health. this is having an effects on everyone's kids, adults as well. this underscores the need for fr risk assessment. >> hoping make this helps break down that stigma of mental health and making it ok to talk about it. we're all in this. it's definitely adults feeling the pressure, the stress and all the anxiety. i want to get to a quick question that came in on facebook. someone says that they know people who have gotten covid-19, so now they're wearing gloves as well. quickly, do you think that is a precaution that is on the top of your list or are there other precautions that you would more so like to hit home? >> gloves are going to be a situational base assessment. i see people wearing gloves at

the grocery store or at a public place. i don't fault you. i wear gloves in the hospital, obviously, a different kind of exposure, but at the top of the list is obviously going to be masks. down from there, the more you add is not necessarily going to be a bad thing. i don't want people to be overly neurotic. we know at the top of the list that masks and staying away from people are going to be your best bet. again, and i stress this, when in doubt people really should get tested. don't rely on the fact that you don't have symptoms. you were exposed to someone who has symptoms, we know people without symptoms can absolutely spread this virus to someone else who may not be as lucky. >> i only have a minute left before heading into the commercial break. let's talk about the concept of a dimmer switch. we've heard it so often during the course of the pandemic. president-elect biden is proposing this strategy.

what's the best way to handle this on a national level, in your opinion? >> we have to be unified. i think that is hands down the most important thing going forward is unified messaging. i'm not saying that every american has to be on the exact same page, because we have different opinions. but at the state level, governors need to be doing the same thing. i hope we can see this with the next -- >> hold that thought. we're going to continue in our commercial break. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa

thank you so much for joining us for this interactive show called "getting answers" we talked about a new study emphasizing the effectiveness of

masks protecting others and yourself. we also covered tonight, the coronavirus emergency unfolding across the u.s. new measures this evening in new york city. the staggering new numbers just in tonight -- more than 193,000 new cases in just the last 24 hours. new york's restrictions going into effect in hours. new york city's mayor tonight alerting families that schools could shut down, turning to remote learning as early as monday. in massachusetts, they're re-opening a field hospital. in nevada, converting a parking garage to treat patients. mask mandates tonight ordered in ohio and utah. new mexico ordering residents to stay home for two weeks. and late today, the trump administration on two vaccines in the hope that most americans will have access theo a vacciney next april. the major