Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio to discuss mask efficacy and the real percentage of protection each type prevents from COVID-19.
Leahy: We are joined in our Nashville studio by Andy Ogles, mayor of Maury County. Andy, I made you some coffee. It’s from Rafael’s Roastery. It’s roasted fresh on Coffee Street in Coffee County, Tennessee. I love that, don’t you? (Chuckles) How is it?
Ogles: It’s great. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to travel. One of my travels was to Italy and this coffee brings back a very specific memory. I was on the train in the middle of nowhere. I remember getting off the train station.
There was a soldier there with a K9 dog. And I get off at this train, literally in a closet is this little guy and he’s got an espresso machine.
And there’s a couple of cocktail tables there. It’s literally a stop in the middle of nowhere. And my wife and I, she was with me on this trip, and we stand there and we have our little espresso and put a little bit of the granulated sugar in it.
But there was a very distinct flavor, very Italian flavor to it. It’s a stronger coffee. It’s got a bitterness to it. Those oils are coming through. This coffee reminds me of that stop in Italy, which was one of the best espressos I’ve ever had.
Leahy: Well, that’s pretty good! That’s pretty good. It’s raphaelscoffee.com. This, by the way, is the black and tan blend. It’s a smooth blend of dark roast and medium roast for the bold coffee lover.
Ogles: And there’s a flavor profile that kind of hangs on your tongue for a second there. That’s that flavor that takes me back to Italy to that stop at the train station and kudos to Rafael’s for hitting it on the mark.
Leahy: Nothing says starting a morning like a good cup of coffee.
Ogles: That’s good. That’s great.
Leahy: Hey, I wanted to bring your attention to this story. And we’ve been doing this Groundhog Day for a year and a half about the efficacy of face masks. All of the left-wing lunatics out there are just as a matter of religious doctrine want to put face masks on everybody, and they never get to the scientific studies.
There are some political groups that are working with some leftwing parents out there in various counties that are trying to push this on school boards.
And so it’s a highly contentious fact. But we have a 20,000-word story up and it is our top story at The Tennessee Star by James Agresti.
The headline, it’s a mouthful. But this is the definitive answer for all of the Groundhog Day questions about face masks. An Analytical Review of the Central Scientific Facts About the Efficacy of Face Masks and Claims They Reduce the Transmission of COVID-19. This is 20,000 words. So we’re not going to read those 20,000 words, Andy.
Ogles: Probably not.
Leahy: You’ve got to mark this and save this. If anybody ever comes and talks to you about, well, you got to wear a mask. You got to read this study. In essence, the basic argument is COVID-19 mainly is spread by microscopic aerosols. And the vast bulk of these aerosols easily penetrate common masks.
Because 90 percent of the aerosols are less than 117th the size of the pores in the finest surgical mask, in less than 180th the size of pores in the finest cloth mask. That’s the underlying fact on cloth masks and surgical masks. And even N95’s don’t perform that particularly well.
Ogles: That’s right. And what’s crazy like you said, this is Groundhog Day. And look, if you want to wear a mask, it’s a free country, go wear a mask. But let’s not make this allegation that masks are foolproof.
So at the beginning of COVID and when I was doing my updates daily and I did so for about eight months, seven months, whatever it was, I would refer to a study that was done by the National Institutes of Health, NIH.
It was up on their website. And it took you through the efficacy of masks. It was their study, everything from an N95 all the way down to putting a paper towel over your face. So like a triple cloth cotton mask or the surgical mask.
And even that study said a surgical mask is up to 18 percent effective. Up to. So that’s not to say it doesn’t have a role. But if you put on a surgical mask and you think suddenly and I say this kind of in jest that you’re Luke Skywalker (Leahy chuckles) and you have the force and you’re protected.
Leahy: You are not.
Ogles: Then you’re misleading yourself because it is only part of the solution to protecting yourself. It’s not foolproof. And that’s been the problem that I’ve had with the messaging. And I see people wear a mask and then they think they’re fully protected.
Leahy: And they are not.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
