Hi there, my name is Jeremy Howard I'm a research scientist at the University of San Francisco and I'm a co-founder of Fast AI.
I'm also on the global AI Council at the World Economic Forum and as you can see I'm doing today a Crafting video.
I think it's fair to say this will be the first and only crafting video I do it's not exactly my area focus But I'm doing it because there's something really really important to know about.
And the important thing is this: a bit of crafting could actually help you stop the spread of Covid-19 in your community Here's what we know These regions here they're all around China the epicenter of the Original epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis.
These areas are Mongolia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan These areas have something in common they have very very few deaths from Covid-19 Also, their economies are extraordinarily unimpacted.
They're not exactly going around their daily business in the usual way There's social distancing but on the whole life is going on much as usual there at least compared to many other parts of the world How are they doing this? How do they got deaths down so much Without destroying their economy and day to day life as much as we are Well, they're doing a lot of things right.
They've got a fantastic testing and place contact tracing quarantine systems for those who might be infected but there's one other thing that they all have in common is really interesting they all have Universal mask-wearing Amongst the general population in public.
It's just totally normal, to people to wear masks there, in a situation like this they've had pandemics before they know how to deal with it and For example in Hong Kong you are not allowed to enter a shop if you are not wearing a mask It's both socially expected and often legally required Is this the reason that things are looking so much better in these countries, we don't know for sure But what we do know is that they have a recipe for something that's working.
But maybe we should follow that recipe.
I tell you what else we found I've had a look at 38 scientific papers on this topic which are related to the question of can Wearing masks help delay, slow down and maybe eventually stop Transmission of Covid-19 in the community and the answer is it sure looks like they can by 50 to 75% Just an amazing difference Well There's a few differences though if should we be wearing masks? here in the US where I am in Australia where I'm from originally in the UK where my family is from Well, there's some problems the first and biggest problem is there's a shortage of what's called n95 respirators Hospital specific Masks that people might be most familiar with there's not enough People are frontline medical workers in hospitals.
But this is a huge problem because Oxford University has Put out advice that says in a hospital situation when you're doing a procedure called an aerosol generating procedure It's really important.
You have an n95 respirator a real proper Hospital mask Otherwise you can get infected because there's kind of a spray of virus infected droplets that hang in the air Here's something else so that Oxford says even in a hospital situation You don't really need to wear these n95 respirators.
Just a regular cloth mask in hospitals They call it a surgical mask is quite enough.
I'm the reason for this.
Is that this illness seems to mainly be spread through droplets that fly out of our mouths when we're talking just like this or If we cough or if we yawn, and in fact, there's some research from Stanford and MIT Which has been supported by the Nobel prize-winning virologist Harold Varmus? that actually has looked in a machine like this where they look at a Laser beam at what happens and they can actually watch these tiny Droplets fly out of your mouth and go 2 meters or more 6 feet to my American friends So what can you do? Well, you can actually cover your mouth with pretty much any kind of cloth Cambridge University has actually looked at there so they found that two layers of cotton work pretty well and the scientists from Shenzhen Hospital have studied different types of material under an electron microscope and found that paper towel is actually perfect for this Oh Well question number one could we start wearing masks without taking them away from frontline medical stuff? Yes, we could we could make them at home using paper towels and/or cotton material in sheets t-shirts so forth Question number two would we really do that in the West because in the West we don't have a culture of mask wearing? turns out the answer is yes, we can an Absolutely, amazing and inspiring campaign kicked off by a science communicator named peter Ludwig in the Czech Republic Proves this is true He put out the word and he said hey places that are wearing masks Have far less deaths Maybe we should do it too.
Here's some scientific research that shows this.
Come on Let's make this happen and it went viral there were songs about it videos about it influences showing themselves wearing Homemade masks within three days nearly everybody in the Czech Republic had a mask it got to the point within days where if you went out without a mask people in your community would look at you and think What is this person's problem? Why are they going around my community without a mask putting me at risk? The message that was sent in that in the Czech Republic Social media and amongst influencers was “my mask protects you, your mask protects me” Well, this is super super important.
And so if you go out with your mask eventually people in your community are going to know You're protecting them you're helping them and the science suggests.
You may well be helping yourself as well Why don't we do this? Why don't we follow this established recipe that has worked in Czech Republic Slovakia went on to do it as well in Austria Now as of today, there are laws that require you to wear a mask when you're shopping Germany's Peak Medical body has just announced that they're recommending that everybody uses masks as well.
So, how do you make your own? Well, here's where the crafting comes in well, this is based on a recipe I found from a Czech video blogger and what she did is she showed how to use a T-shirt, so if you start with a cotton t-shirt, then you're using the fabric that Cambridge University noticed works so well and specifically here we've got two layers because it's a t-shirt right? And so you can see what I've done here is I've drawn with chalk align just underneath the armpits and Another line that goes from just inside the sleeve as the sleeve seam and back out again Another line that goes along the top of the seam of the t-shirt Underneath the neck for the other end and then there's another one just here after this other arm Well, of course the wind would have to come start blowing just as I start doing this video but of course I can't do it inside because I have a four year old and Wants to talk to me and [?] But she thinks about this at the same time that I'm trying to talk.
So we go ahead and cut from underneath here right through All the way to the end Yeah, and then for the arm Will cut You see that there So a cut It becomes out okay on the video, but otherwise you can see where the cut is So I'm just starting underneath the seam here, but underneath the fold I should say and then I come all the way through Just past this growing in the fabric and then I do the same on the other side adding just above Coming through to the joint in the fabric And I can go ahead an make those join up That's not my forte I'm getting there Here we go oh this is what the bid I've cut out looks like right And so you don't have to watch me doing the other one because I'm so damn slow.
Here's one I did earlier And here is what it looks like Okay, so that's the mask right and You can see here.
Another thing I've done is at the bottom is I've popped a Little safety pin now why have I done that? That's because we're going to take advantage of that Shenzhen hospital research electron microscope research that shows that a paper towel works So well, what you do is I've got two pieces of cotton here, right? So just pop a little piece of paper towel between those and it'll just rest here against his safety pin And here's how you put it on you actually Pop it over your nose and then it goes behind your head.
Okay, and then you can just tie it up behind you Like so That it could be kind of low down.
That's totally fine And here's the other cool bit right the original Czech bloggers that did this had a ponytail.
So worked particularly well I don't have a ponytail, but you just go up a little bit more And That's my mask so When I head outside, I wear this in public, especially if there's any chance I might get within six feet of somebody Okay, and then at the end of the day at the end of my outing I should say come back Untie it right And then take out the piece of paper towel from between the two bits of t-shirt and throw it in the trash and then wash this with soapy water because what we know scientists have found is that Soap destroys the lipid layer that protects the virus So so wash this with soap now the other thing to realize is that as you've been breathing in and out if if you've come in contact with somebody who's infected or you're infected there could now be Virus particles in your mask or in that piece of paper we took out so that means that as we took it off so when you take it off try not to touch more than you have to and Then make sure you wash your hands before you touch anything else, right? Because you could have got some virus particles on your hands just as you took it on and off but here's the thing Right if there's virus particles on here after your outing that means you came in contact with somebody in the virus and that means that the virus is in here and not in your face and this virus actually comes in through the eyes the nose or the mouth and Is expelled mainly through the mouth.
So the mask will protect others from the Saliva rejected from your mouth when you're talking It'll protect your nose and mouth And if you want to protect your eyes as well You can pop on a pair of glasses or even goggles if you want to for that extra layer of protection So that's what you need to do.
It's not enough for you to do it You need everybody in your community to do it If you can get this up to 75% of your community you will probably slash the transmission of the virus in your area particularly when this is combined with social distancing and washing and then It's something that needs a support from You know a much much wider group is then widespread testing Contact tracing and quarantine of people who might be infected.
This is the recipe we know works from these countries that are around China So let's all get into it and remember My mask protects you, your mask protects me.
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