MASKS save lives, COTTON GLOVES could save more lives, and all FIBROUS STUFF can block or capture all respiratory pathogens including COVID-19
To fight COVID-19, I, Wenbin Zhao, improved the past Filtration Theory and drew Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory in March 2020 which, I think, could guide us to stop the spread of respiratory pathogens including COVID-19 and the flu.
Filtration Theory: When a fluid containing particles goes through a filter bed, especially fibrous filter bed, the filter bed can block a lot of the particles which are smaller than the interstices on the filter bed surface. And the filter bed is thicker the chance of small particles passing through it is less, double the thickness of the filter bed the chance of small particles passing through it will be the second power of the original chance.
According to this theory, we can use masks as filter beds to block the viruses in the air.
Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory: When small particles are pressed into or strike plentiful fibers, these small particles will be captured by fibers, and it will not be easy for these small particles to drop off from the fibers. To understand this Theory, we can observe these phenomena. If you touch a hard surface with your fingers and slide on it, like the top of a table in your bedroom, then you look at your fingers, you might find some dust on your fingers. But if you touch a cloth surface, like your quilt on your bed in the same bedroom, with your fingers and slide on it, even if the quilt has as much dust on it as the table does, you can’t find dust on your fingers. The table and the quilt are in the same room, they should have the same quantity of dust on every square centimeter, but the fact is that we can pick up some dust from the top of the table, and we can’t pick up dust from the quilt. Why? When you touch a hard surface like the top of your table, there are no fibers and no fiber interstices, there is not space for the dust to hide in, and so your fingers can pick the dust up. When you touch a cloth surface like your quilt, there are a lot of fibers and fiber interstices on the quilt, you can press the dust into the fiber interstices, the dust hides in the cloth, so it’s hard for you to pick up the dust.
According to this theory, we can use cotton gloves as plentiful fibers to capture or arrest the viruses on hard surfaces, to keep our hands clean at all times, and unconsciously clean these dangerous surfaces.
1. What I have been doing since Wuhan lockdown on Jan. 23.
On January 25th night, I was puzzling over this virus problem for that whole night and thought of cotton gloves (eFigure 1). The next day (January 26th), I posted my idea about gloves on my Chinese social media account WeChat urging my relatives and friends not only to wear masks but also gloves. At that time, COVID-19 was spreading very badly in China, it was hard to buy masks and latex gloves or plastic gloves then. I was not sure if I could buy cotton gloves, on January 29th I tried to go to web and found cotton gloves were available and still very cheap (that means at that time few Chinese people realized that cotton gloves could help), I bought some which I received in March (I received them very late because of a lot of lockdowns in China during that period of time.)
In January, I concluded that gloves could protect the people who wear them. Later on, I concluded that cotton gloves work far better than latex gloves or plastic gloves. After that, I concluded that cotton gloves can not only protect the people who wear them but also other people. By the middle of March 2020, I improved the past “Filtration Theory” and drew “Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory,” and based on these two theories I concluded that cotton gloves can help solve the COVID-19 pandemic, (frankly before this conclusion, I was really afraid of COVID-19 myself, but after this conclusion I have not been afraid of COVID-19 at all,) and I started sending emails about this conclusion to a lot of health and other authorities including the U.S. CDC (from March 18, I sent a lot of emails to the U.S. CDC). And now, after studying the COVID-19 pandemic and the nature of cotton gloves for more than half a year, I have concluded that cotton gloves can save millions of lives, and can certainly help eradicate these kinds of respiratory infectious pathogens among human beings combining with masks and other safety measures in a couple of months on this planet.
On Aug. 11, I posted the first version of my paper on Medium, entitled: Cotton (fabric or cloth) gloves are the game changer to solve the COVID-19 pandemic
On Dec. 10, I posted the 6th version of my paper on Medium, entitled: MASKS save lives, COTTON GLOVES could save more lives, and all FIBROUS STUFF can block or capture all respiratory pathogens including COVID-19.
Since Aug. 12, I started to submit my paper to some medical journals, unfortunately these medical journals have already refused my paper, but they were all unable to tell me which of my arguments is wrong, and they all hoped me to pursue publication of my paper elsewhere. That means they are not sure whether I’m right or not about my theories and cotton glove conclusion. I think they worried that if they decided to publish my paper and later found I’m wrong, their decision would probably spoil their reputation, and so they might as well simply have refused my paper. I think this is exactly the ignorance and irresponsibility of these medical editors.
While I’m frustrated by these editors’ decisions, I understand people may not trust me and think that I am nobody, but I’m pretty sure that my idea will save millions of peoples’ lives, so I have to fight for people’s lives and for science until someone convinces me that my theories are wrong or my cotton glove conclusion is wrong, or my conclusion starts to save lives.
I’d like to say that more than 400 years ago, people also didn’t trust Nicolaus Copernicus, but Copernicus was right about his heliocentric theory, and I want to say I’m exactly the Nicolaus Copernicus of today.
2. What I have found, what mistakes the health experts have made and are making.
When I watched ABC News on February 7th (U.S. time Feb. 6th), ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jen Ashton said, “Doctor Fauci himself told me that the size of the corona virus particle is so small that it can infiltrate these surgical masks, so there is no evidence that they are effective in protecting a healthy person.” Watch from 5:56 to 6:10 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/home-researchers-working-furiously-learn-vaccine-coronavirus-works-68786300
I thought they were absolutely wrong at that time, and I posted my idea refuting their comments on my Chinese social media account WeChat afterwards. I usually trust west health experts, but about masks, I didn’t listen to them at all at that time, instead I wore two masks. I was pretty sure that if surgical masks were N50, two surgical masks would be N75 (1–0.5 X 0.5 = 0.75 = 75%, Filtration Theory). So I wore two masks. N75 is not as good as N95, but it’s better than N50 and far better than nothing. Afterward, I learned surgical mask is similar to N80 (I have not verified this information further), if surgical masks equal to N80, then two surgical masks equal to N96 (1–0.2 X 0.2 = 0.96 = 96%), and are better than N95.
President Trump challenged about masks during the presidential debate, saying Dr. Anthony Fauci had changed his position on masks, the president said, “Dr. Fauci said, he said very strongly masks are not good. Then he changed his mind, he said masks are good.” Watch from 1:08 to 1:24 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/covid-19-cases-rise-31-states-73351056
Obviously, Dr. Anthony Fauci did change his mind about masks. But as of today, I have not heard from him explaining why he changed his mind. I think these health experts including Dr. Fauci don’t know physics or engineering very well, they don’t really understand how the virus is transmitted outside our bodies and how to stop it from transmitting, and so they can’t explain why they changed their minds. They saw the effects of masks in eastern countries where people wore masks from the beginning of this pandemic and have fewer cases and deaths, and so they changed their minds. I think they don’t have the competence to explain why.
There is another mistake Dr. Fauci is making, I have predicted in my paper posted as early as on Aug. 11 on Medium, quote, “Even people don’t trust me, but with more people believing in masks and wearing masks, I’m pretty sure the flu outbreaks in the U.S. will be very weak this winter.” This prediction of mine has already been verified of sorts by ABC News on September 13 involved the flu outbreaks in the southern hemisphere, correspondent Travor Ault said, “… strict measures in the southern hemisphere have successfully diminished the flu season there.” Watch from 1:18 to 1:30 of this ABC News video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/hope-race-covid-19-vaccine-72988211
But Dr. Fauci has not realized that the current public health measures, like masks and others, could also block the spread of another respiratory pathogen, the flu. It looks like he thinks the flu outbreaks in the U.S. in this fall and winter will be as same as previous years, and so he’s still worried about the flu. ABC New host David Muir said on Sep. 28, “Dr. Fauci has said, we need to be at 10,000 cases a day as we head into the fall flu season to tackle this pandemic.” Watch from 0:26 to 0:35 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/york-state-sees-positive-test-rate-increase-multiple-73299121
You can see Dr. Fauci has made a mistake about masks, and is making a mistake about the prediction of the flu outbreaks in this fall and winter in the U.S.
The U.S. CDC has also always been having changing guidance, confusing guidance. We all know the CDC acknowledged airborne transmission of COVID-19, and then denied it, and acknowledged it just a few days ago once again. Watch from 0:25 to 0:55 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/cdc-acknowledges-airborne-transmission-covid-19-73460255
In fact, the American people have also been complaining about those mixed messages, the president of Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, Mark Cannizzaro, said to ABC News on Sep. 27, “All summer long we’ve been running into roadblock after roadblock, with changing guidance, confusing guidance. Sometimes no guidance.” Watch from 1:20 to 1:32 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/covid-19-deaths-million-worldwide-73280420
The U.S. CDC, the U.S. health authorities, the world’s top health authorities, with such changing, confusing guidance, how the U.S. people should do? How the people around the world should do?
3. Why the health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci made mistakes about masks and the U.S. CDC has confusing guidance. That means they don’t know COVID-19 very well, and so, perhaps they have some blind spots or there are some loopholes in the current measures. How to correct those mistakes and how to close the possible loopholes.
Frankly, I respect Dr. Anthony Fauci very much, and I really learned something from him, and I know clearly he is a very good man, and I really don’t want to attack Dr. Fauci. But I have to state what mistakes he and other health experts and the CDC have made, what mistakes they are making and what they confuse, in order to correct those mistakes and clarify those confusing issues effectively and find new and effective more measures to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Fauci and other health experts are scientists with expertise of medicine, they are all very good at medicine, but not good at physics and engineering. But I’m pretty sure that blocking the respiratory pathogens including COVID-19 and the flu outside our bodies is actually and exactly a matter of physics and engineering. So, it’s very natural for these health experts to made mistakes on physics and engineering matters.
Why they made mistakes on masks, because they don’t know exactly how masks work, so, let me explain how masks work.
According to Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory and Filtration Theory, all kinds of masks could help, because, they all have plentiful fibers, and masks are actually fibrous filter beds that filtrate the air and can block or capture the particles containing COVID-19. Even if a mask can’t guarantee to block or capture all the particles going through it, it does reduce the chances of particles of getting into our nose or mouth. (Two masks reduce much more the chances, so I wore two masks from the beginning of this pandemic.)
West heath experts initially thought common masks couldn’t block the respiratory droplets or particles, they thought the size of the droplets or particles are smaller than the size of the fiber interstices on the mask, so they thought common masks couldn’t block the virus. But they don’t know the fact that it’s impossible for these droplets or particles to go through a mask unimpededly. When these droplets or particles go through a mask, they don’t go in a straight line, they would strike fiber(s) and would adhere to the fiber or would be stuck between the fibers. If west health experts knew these things, even if they wanted to keep N95 and surgical masks supplies for healthcare workers, they would have and should have advised people to make or sew cloth masks themselves and wear them at the beginning of this pandemic. If they did that, there wouldn’t have been so many cases and deaths in west countries. I have said that they didn’t know physics very well, so they made that mistake, it was very natural.
Of course, all people around the world except me have made a huge mistake. All people think to solve this pandemic we should ONLY listen to medical experts, that’s wrong. In fact, we need health experts and other scientists to protect the health of our human beings, especially physicists and engineers, we need health experts and physicists and engineers working together. I know, health experts have been being very busy and have not had time to discuss with other scientists on these matters, and other scientist think they don’t know medicine, and they have not even started to puzzle over these kinds of problems. And so, many, many, many people have died from COVID-19.
There are some other physics phenomena in the process of mask blocking the particles. If the respiratory droplets are wet (containing water), they will be easy to adhere to the fibers in masks. If the droplets have been in air for some time and become into dry particles, it also doesn’t matter, the breath exhaled from our lungs contains a lot of moisture, the moisture can evenly let the fibers become wet, dry particles can also easily adhere to the wet fibers. Regardless the respiratory droplets or particles being wet or dry, and regardless the fibers in the mask being wet or dry, even if dry particles are going through a dry mask, the dry fibers also have a lot of chance to stick the dry particles.
The last and the most important, when we inhale, the droplets or particles are going toward the mask and blocked by the mask; when we exhale, the droplets or particles blocked by the mask could be blown out of the mask and get into the air again, in this way the mask can also block the virus better.
I also want to discuss another important function of masks in protecting our respiratory system, that is wearing a mask can make the air we inhale warmer and wetter. We know that a cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract, why we call this illness a cold? Apparently that means the patient once was in cold environment or inhaled cold air. When we are in cold environment, our body will become a little cold, our immune system will not work very well, and it might not conquer the respiratory pathogens we inhaled, that would lead to us getting sick, so we call it we got a cold, we use the word cold which describes low temperature to describe this illness. If we inhale cold air, our respiratory tract and lungs will also become a little cold, the immune cells in our respiratory tract and lungs will also not work very well, and they might also not conquer the respiratory pathogens we inhaled, and we would also get sick. While we are wearing a mask outdoors especially in winter, when we exhale the expelled air can heat the mask and the mask will become warmer, when we inhale the warmer mask can heat the cold air and then the warmer air will get into our respiratory tract and our lungs, the warmer air will not damage our immune cells in our respiratory tract and lungs, and these immune cells can defeat the respiratory pathogens we inhaled, and so we will not get sick. With this function, the mask can also protect us against COVID-19. To utilize this function, the mask is thicker the mask would heat the air more, this also means the mask is thicker it’s better just like it is in its filtration function. I have found that the death rates in Singapore and Maldives are very low (as of Dec. 10, 2020, Singapore below 0.05%, Maldives below 0.4%), why? Because these two countries are around the equator and surrounded by the sea, the air in these two countries is always warm and wet. The warm and wet air can always protect the immune cells in our lungs which fight off the virus, and so the death rates in Singapore and Maldives are low. Thicker masks can also help us get warmer and wetter air, so even if we contract the virus, thicker masks can also help save our lives.
The experiment on mask’s effect to block COVID-19 is very difficult to be done, because nobody knows how much level of concentration of the virus in the air is appropriate to do this experiment, nobody knows the appropriate size of droplets or particles to do this experiment. Even if we can assume one level of concentration of the virus in the air and the droplets or particles’ size to do this experiment, it will still be difficult to detect how much of the droplets or particles passing through the mask, how much captured within the mask, how much blocked by the mask, and how much not going to the mask at all. And I think there are a lot of other difficulties like how to make the droplets and the safety of the experimenter etc. Since there are so many difficulties, nobody has done such experiment, and nobody can convince the people that all kinds of masks are helpful by showing the experiment data, and that’s the reason why up to now there are still some people who don’t believe in masks.
But it doesn’t matter, the fact that east people wore masks from the beginning of this pandemic and then have less cases and deaths can also convince the people around the world to believe in masks. And now my Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory, Filtration Theory and mask’s heating and wetting air function can convince the people to believe in masks.
Why the U.S. CDC has always been having confusing and changing guidance on airborne transmission of COVID-19? I think they don’t know some of the properties of COVID-19 and where the viruses are in our environment.
I think there are two sources of the viruses coming to our environment, SOUCE 1 and SOURCE 2.
SOURCE 1 is the viruses contained in droplets expelled from Covid patients or asymptomatic patients’ mouth or nose, we all know SOURCE 1.
I have to discuss SOURCE 2, the viruses on the patients’ hands, people often unconsciously touch their nose or mouth, COVID-19 patients also do so, when they do so they would pick a lot of viruses from his nose or mouth, then it’s very natural that COVID-19 patients could have a lot of virus on their hands (including COVID-19 patient’s own respiratory droplets dropped or flew onto his hands and some droplets stricken and absorbed by their hands when the hands were moving in the air). When COVID-19 patients’ hands touch some surfaces, the virus can also get onto these surface, this is what I called SOURCE 2.
Watch from 0:15 to 0:25 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/biden-urges-people-safe-thanksgiving-message-74408769
You can find President-elect Joe Biden touched his mouth and nose twice within 10 seconds. If he was an asymptomatic patient of COVID-19, he might have sent the virus to some surfaces by touching them. If he had touched some suspected surfaces before, he could have sent the virus to his own mouth or nose.
Where does SOURCE 1 (droplets) go?
Please watch the Laser Light-Scattering Experiment Showing Speech-Generated Droplets by NEJM in this ABC News video from 2:15 to 2:28 at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/100000-lives-lost-coronavirus-us-70914820 carefully, this video was initially intended to show speech generating droplets, but I think it also demonstrated where these droplets go, where SOURCE 1 go. By watching this video you can understand that THE VAST MAJORITY of SOURCE 1 (the bigger droplets) go to the ground, floors or objects’ surfaces. THE TINY MINORITY of SOURCE 1 (the smaller droplets) float in the air. The droplets generated by cough or sneeze are in generally bigger than the droplets generated by speech, so the conclusion that THE TINY MINORITY of SOURCE 1 (the smaller droplets) float in the air is more accurate.
One of the most important properties of the virus is that the viruses are not molecules, they can’t diffuse in the air. If the airborne transmission theory means that the viruses can diffuse in the air, it’s absolutely wrong. A single virus is a tiny object, let alone an assembly of some viruses, a droplet with a lot of the viruses or a particle with a lot of the viruses, they are all tiny objects and they would fly everywhere immediately after they are expelled or float in the air and finally drop down. Even the smaller droplets can float in the air, I think they can only float in the still air for a few minutes, and finally drop down. So I think the aerosol theory of the virus is incorrect and the airborne transmission of COVID-19 doesn’t matter.
In fact, all kinds of respiratory pathogens are tiny objects, and the droplets or particles with them, of course, are also tiny objects. So, I’m pretty sure all respiratory infectious pathogens’ spreads are exactly in the same ways, the measures to block one respiratory pathogen can also silently, automatically and unconsciously block other respiratory pathogens.
As for THE TINY MINORITY of SOURCE 1, the smaller droplets temporarily floating in the air, a healthy person’s mouth and nose is nearer with a COVID patient or an asymptomatic patient’s mouth and nose, the air he inhales might have higher concentration of the viruses, and he is more susceptible. That’s the reason why social distance is important. But that doesn’t mean that less than 6 feet is not safe, more than 6 feet is safe, because we have to take into account another factor, the time. If a healthy person stays with a COVID patient or an asymptomatic patient nearer and for a longer time, he is more susceptible. So 6 feet social distance is just a suggestion, 6 feet doesn’t guarantee safety, we don’t need to use the airborne transmission to explain more than 6 feet infections. We should take into account that the movement of air can carry the virus far more than 6 feet, regular objects or people’s movement can also cause the movement of air, the movement of air can also blow up the dry viruses on the ground or on floors or on objects’ surfaces back into the air, and so the airborne transmission theory doesn’t matter. Since the U.S. CDC doesn’t understand these matters, they have changing and confusing guidance on airborne transmission.
Regardless the droplets of particles containing the viruses were initially floating in the air, or blown up from the ground, floors or objects’ surfaces by the movement of air back into the air, according to my Filtration Theory, all kinds of masks can help block the viruses in the air.
As for the first part of THE VAST MAJORITY of SOURCE 1, the viruses on the ground outdoors, they usually don’t threaten our health, because we don’t inhale the air near the ground nor our hands touch the ground. But if the wind is very strong outdoors and the ground is dry, the dried viruses on the ground will be blown up back into the air, and we still have chances to inhale them into our lungs. I did have a similar experience in one afternoon of last November when the wind was very strong and I walked outdoors, that night I got a high fever, and later developed a pneumonia. Now I’m pretty sure that I inhaled some pneumonia pathogens that afternoon outdoors.
So during a respiratory pathogen epidemic, we must wear masks outdoors when the ground is dry and the wind is very strong or after strong winds.
As for the second part of THE VAST MAJORITY of SOURCE 1, the viruses on the floors indoors, when the droplets get on the floors indoors, they will become into dry particles after some time. People’s movement or regular objects’ movement can cause the movement of air which could blow up the dried viruses on the floors back into the air again. (Please note, if the floors have fibrous carpets on it, the carpets can capture a lot of the viruses, and the movement of air can’t easily blow the viruses up again.)
So we must wear masks in a suspected unsafe indoor space at all times.
The third part of THE VAST MAJORITY of SOURCE 1 (the droplets flying or dropping onto objects’ surfaces) and whole SOURCE 2 (the viruses on patients’ hands) would get onto objects surfaces. The U.S. CDC think the amount of the viruses on objects’ surfaces is quite small, but I don’t think so. You can see there are two sources of the viruses coming to surfaces. And now we know the viruses on objects surfaces can survive up to 28 days (maybe longer in cold and dry weather, that’s the reason why the flu outbreaks in winter), not like THE TINY MINORITY of SOURCE 1 can float in the air for just a few minutes. So I think the viruses on objects’ surfaces have more threat.
The U.S. CDC doesn’t take this part of the viruses in our environment very seriously. They say, “COVID-19 spreads less commonly through contact with contaminated surfaces. Respiratory droplets can also land on surfaces and objects. It is possible that a person could get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes. Spread from touching surfaces is not thought to be a common way that COVID-19 spreads.” And watch from 2:00 to 2:16 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/cdc-updates-website-covid-19-surfaces-70818297 to see they changed their guidance on May 21.
They have not realized that COVID-19 patients’ hands can also send the virus to surfaces. They have not taken account the fact that the virus can survive far more long on surfaces than it can linger in the air. I think they are making confusing guidance and mistakes.
To block the viruses on objects surfaces, we need to know some other properties of the virus.
COVID-19 is a new virus, but it’s still one of many respiratory coronaviruses like the flu. COVID-19 only replicates on certain animal tissues (or cells), our lungs are the best nutrient pads or petri dishes for this virus to replicate. Of course, the fact that it replicates in our lungs and damages our lungs is exactly the problem, and that’s the reason why we get sick and even dead. If it doesn’t have the appropriate soil (animal tissues as nutrient pad or petri dish) it will die finally after some time.
COVID-19 doesn’t replicate on the objects’ surfaces, and it doesn’t also replicate on our hands’ skin, it just stays on them. It does not have legs or claws, teeth, or wings, it itself does not have the power or ability to get into our body on its own, that means it cannot penetrate through our skin into our body.
Heath experts advise us to wash hands, this means health experts admit the above properties, because if COVID-19 can penetrate through our hand skin to get into our body, hand washing doesn’t make any sense.
While hand washing is a measure to block the viruses on objects surfaces, but it’s not a good one, because we can’t guarantee we wouldn’t touch our face during the period of time from picking the virus up to washing it off, we can’t also guarantee we wouldn’t drop off the viruses into the air again. So this is an apparent loophole.
We need to find some measure to close this loophole, and I think it’s exactly because of this loophole we have not solved this COVID-19 pandemic yet. According to my Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory, I’m pretty sure Cotton gloves can close this loophole, they can capture or arrest the viruses on objects surfaces when our hands touch these surfaces. Cotton gloves can confine these viruses within them, they can keep our hands clean at all times to protect the person who wears cotton gloves, and help clean all surfaces to protect other people who touch these surfaces later, and then will make the world safer, this is a very good measure which health experts have not thought of so far.
It’s not difficult to understand that it’s far more difficult for the viruses to escape from cotton gloves than from our hands, because cotton gloves have plentiful fibers, the small particles can be stuck between the fibers, this is based on my Plentiful Fibers Can Capture Small Particles Theory.
We can use this theory to capture the respiratory droplets or particles containing COVID-19 on hard surfaces. In fact, all kinds of cloth have plentiful fibers, but the best pieces of cloth to do this job are cotton gloves or other fabric or cloth gloves, because when our cotton gloving hand is touching a surface with droplets or particles containing COVID-19 on it, the droplets or particles will be unconsciously and automatically pressed into the fiber interstices of the glove.
With cotton gloves we can do this job like a blind man, we are indeed blind persons to this virus, and so we need these blind men’s tools, cotton gloves. The cotton gloves can capture the virus, and then we, the human beings, will have less chances to catch or contract the virus to get sick. It looks like cotton gloves replace us to contract the virus, cotton gloves save us, I think this is absolutely the best idea.
If there is COVID-19 on a hard and smooth surface like a doorknob, and if our hands without cotton gloves touch the doorknob, our hands could pick it up, and it will stay on our hands or drops off from our hands to get into the air once again. If it stays on our hands, we might send it to our face when we unconsciously touch our face, if the virus is near or on our face that will be very much dangerous. If it drops off our hands to get into the air once again, it will endanger all people around. But if our cotton gloving hands touch that doorknob, the virus will be pressed into the fiber interstices of the gloves, and the virus will be confined or stuck within the glove, the virus will not endanger anybody. And in fact, when we wear gloves, we reluctant to touch our face, in this way, gloves will also help.
Some people argued that, cotton gloves are porous, they can’t block the virus from getting to our hand skin. I replied to them, quote, “We needn’t to do our best to block the virus from getting onto our hand skin. We should only try our best to block the virus from getting into our nose (respiratory tract), our mouth or eyes, the porous fish net can capture fish, and porous cotton gloves can capture the virus.” Even if the virus can penetrate cotton gloves to get onto our hand skin, (I think this chance is almost 0,) the virus stays on our hand skin, when we take off the gloves, they will actually wipe our hands, and cotton gloves will capture the virus from our hand skin and our hands will also become cleaner and safer. And when we get home, we can take off the gloves, and then wash hands immediately, that will doubly assure that the virus would not get to our face.
As stated above, WEARING COTTON GLOVES CAN CLOSE THE LOOPHOLE OF HAND WASHING, AND COTTON GLOVES WORK FAR BETTER THAN HAND WASHING.
Cotton gloves are also far better than latex gloves and plastic gloves. Latex gloves and plastic gloves can prevent the virus from getting onto our hands, but this does not make any sense, because the virus does not replicate on our hand skin, and the virus does not penetrate the hand skin to get into our body. The only one advantage of latex gloves and plastic gloves is that when we take off latex gloves or plastic gloves we don’t need to wash hands. But latex gloves and plastic gloves have the most serious shortcoming, when the latex gloves or plastic gloves pick the virus from some surfaces, they cannot capture or arrest the virus, they cannot confine the virus within the gloves, so the virus can easily drop off from latex or plastic gloves and enter into the air again, that means latex or plastic gloves are repeatedly taking the viruses up and throwing them into the air again, so I think latex gloves are doing bad things. That will endanger all the people around including the person wearing latex gloves or plastic gloves. But cotton gloves can capture or arrest the viruses and confine them within the fiber interstices, the virus will not easily drop off, SO COTTON GLOVES ARE FAR BETTER THAN LATEX GLOVES AND PLASTIC GLOVES.
Cotton gloves are extremely cheap, and we can sterilize them by steaming (eFigure 2), so they can be used over and over again, there will not likely be a short of supply.
When a cotton gloving hand is touching a doorknob, it is wiping the doorknob more thoroughly than a bare hand doing that, that means the doorknob will become cleaner and there will be fewer viruses left on the doorknob, and of course, the doorknob will become safer for the person who will touch it later. So COTTON GLOVES CAN ALSO HELP PROTECT OTHER PEOPLE.
If all people wear cotton gloves, every cotton gloving hand is like a policeman to capture or arrest the virus on every surface, every surface will become safer, and the world will become safer. Even if not every person wears cotton gloves, if most people wear cotton gloves, every surface will also become safer, and this will decrease the Effective Reproductive Number (R), that will help to solve this pandemic.
If someone really doesn’t want to wear cotton gloves and can’t wash hands, he can frequently rub his hands against his clothes, or rub his hand against his clothes immediately after his hand touches a doubtful surface. I know this action is not graceful, but it will really help. His clothes can capture or arrest the virus from his hands, his hands will also become safer.
In fact, all fibrous stuff have already helped capture the virus, our regular clothes, table cloth, bedclothes and carpets all have helped us capture a lot of the virus. Now we need to utilize this property of the fibrous stuff to capture the virus on objects’ surfaces, cotton gloves can do this job perfectly. Health experts only mention the viruses on non-porous surfaces, like glass, stainless steel, plastic surfaces, they have never mentioned the viruses on porous surfaces, like our regular clothes, table cloth, bedclothes and carpets’ surfaces. Why? Don’t viruses go to these porous surfaces? Of course, not. These health experts have not realized the fact that these porous surfaces have already captured a lot of the viruses.
I have not seen protective gowns, if they are not porous, I think they are good for surgery, they might not necessarily protect people from COVID-19, because we needn’t to prevent the virus from being captured by our regular clothes, our porous clothes, and I think if our clothes capture more of the virus from a certain space, this space will become safer. The gowns block our fibrous and porous clothes from capturing the virus, and gowns themselves might not necessarily capture the virus as well as regular clothes do, and the virus can easily drop off from the gowns and enter the air again, so I don’t think protective gowns are helpful for blocking COVID-19. But face shields are really good PPE for COVID-19, it can stop the respiratory droplets containing the virus from directly flying to our eyes.
Cotton gloves are not only PPE, when only my families and I wear cotton gloves, they are just PPE only for our family. But when all or most of the people in a hot spot wear cotton gloves, the gloves will become the most powerful weapons to capture and arrest COVID-9 in this hot spot. When all or most of the people in all hot spots around the world wear cotton gloves, everyone cotton glove is actually wiping every surface, every surface will become cleaner and safer, and the Effective Reproductive Number (R) will certainly go down, and all cotton gloves will become an incredible army to destroy COVID-19, in this way this cotton glove army will eradicate covid-19 among our human beings on this planet in a couple of months, and the whole world will certainly return to normalcy.
Cotton gloves can solve the problem of the virus on surfaces, masks can solve the problem of the virus in the air. These two safety measures can solve the whole problem. We don’t need any vaccines for any infectious respiratory pathogens at all.
This is not a fantasy, this is not an assumption, this a scientific conclusion.
4. There is some evidence that has already verified my theories and cotton glove conclusion of sorts
Our family started wearing cotton gloves after I thought of cotton gloves on Jan. 25 night, and we wore mask and cotton gloves until May 2020. During that period of time, none of our families had ever got a cough, a sneeze, a runny nose or sputum at all, and not even a little. I think our cotton gloves and masks had very successfully blocked all respiratory pathogens from getting into our body, so all our families didn’t even have a little cold during that period of time. Since June, our families started not wearing cotton gloves and masks (unless some places requiring us to wear a mask). Since June, I myself had sputum and runny nose sometimes, and had cough occasionally. Since June, my two children of 5 and 3 had cough and runny nose sometimes, and in fact they are having cough and runny nose in recent days and need medication. And since June, my wife also had a few little colds. I think without cotton gloves and masks, we could easily contract the respiratory pathogens, and so we got the little colds. I think this is exactly a kind of evidence of sorts.
I think Dr. Rick Bright, an American immunologist and public health official, will absolutely accept my idea. When I watched Dr. Rick Bright testifying on the Capitol Hill on ABC News on May 14th, I noted that Dr. Rick Bright also wore cotton gloves (eFigure 3). Watch from 1:25 to 1:30 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/top-health-official-warns-darkest-winter-us-history-70690766
I’m sure Dr. Bright thought that cotton gloves could protect himself, but he has not realized that cotton glove could help solve this pandemic very easily. I think Dr. Rick Bright’s action is also a kind of evidence of sorts.
I predicted in my paper posted as early as Aug. 11, 2020 on Medium, quote, “Even people don’t trust me, but with more people believing in masks and wearing masks, I’m pretty sure the flu outbreaks in the U.S. will be very weak this winter.” This prediction of mine has already been verified of sorts by ABC News on September 13 involved the flu outbreaks in the southern hemisphere, correspondent Travor Ault said, “… strict measures in the southern hemisphere have successfully diminished the flu season there.” Watch from 1:18 to 1:30 of this ABC News video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/hope-race-covid-19-vaccine-72988211
And in fact, we can now go to https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ILIMap
The CDC posts these words: “Key Updates for Week 48, ending November 28, 2020, Seasonal influenza activity in the United States remains lower than usual for this time of year.”
In fact, usually at this time of the year, the flu cases are at least thousands per week, but at this time of this year the flu cases are only tens per week. Please check the following four figures from the U.S. CDC (eFigure 4, 5, 6, 7)
This certifies my prediction is right, frankly, my prediction was not a guess, it was indeed a scientific conclusion based on my theories, so the number of flu cases at this time of this year in the U.S. has already certified my theories are right. That means that the appropriate physics measures can block the respiratory pathogens very successfully.
I have said, all respiratory pathogens are transmitted in exactly the same ways, under certain measures, the pathogen with a lower Basic Reproduction Number “Ro” (the less contagious pathogen) will disappear first, this is the reason I predicted that the flu outbreaks in the U.S. will be very weak this winter.
I can also explain why the flu outbreaks are in winters. When these respiratory viruses leave our body to be in our environment, they don’t have nutrient pads or petri dishes to replicate, they are in our environment and only wait to die or wait to get into someone’s body. If the virus survives in our environment longer, it can be more dangerous and the disease can be more contagious. The environment is drier and colder, the metabolism of the virus is slower, the metabolism of the virus is slower the virus will survive longer, and the people will face more danger. If the virus is in freezing or dry condition, it will be dormant permanently, and when it becomes warmer or wetter the virus will be revived again. If we inhale dried or frozen virus, it will be revived in our respiratory tract or lungs. We know, winter is drier and colder than other seasons, so the viruses survive longer or are dormant outdoors in winter, so the flu outbreaks are mostly in winter.
In winter the weather is colder and drier, the viruses survive longer, and because the weather is dry, the viruses on the ground outdoors can be more easily blown up back into the air again (and the viruses might drop onto some surfaces our hands might touch,) this is another reason why the flu outbreaks in winter.
I think the fact of the diminished flu season in the past winter in the southern hemisphere and my explanation of the flu outbreaks in winter are also a kind of evidence verifying my great intelligence. And in 3 to 5 months, everybody will know I’m right on my prediction on the flu outbreaks in this fall and winter in the U.S.
According to the above evidence, medical journals should pay attention to my paper. So, to medical journal editors, please do not simply refuse my paper, you should at least wait for 3 to 5 months to further see if I’m right or not on my prediction about the flu outbreaks in the U.S. in this winter, and then decide if you should refuse my paper. But I’d like to remind you, in 3 to 5 months, more people will die, do not let your ignorance and irresponsibility keep killing people.
5. How I protected my families when the virus was surging in China
These are my family’s measures to block COVID-19 in February, March, April and May 2020, when COVID-19 was spreading very badly in China, I’m sure they are the best measures. If COVID-19 comes to our city for a second wave, our family will take these measures again. With these measures, all my families are not afraid of this virus at all.
1. When we get out of home, first wear the new cotton gloves or sterilized cotton gloves, then put on masks.
2. When we are outside, make sure the mask is always on, and try our best to keep the gloves on (eFigure 8). If we need to use phones, we can take off the gloves, but after using the phone, put the gloves on again immediately.
3. When we get back home, carefully take off the gloves into a stainless steel basin, then, carefully take off the mask into a small stainless steel basin. Carefully means only touch the mask’s slings, do not touch the mask’s outer and lining, and let the mask’s lining upwards in the small stainless steel basin (eFigure 9). In this way, the mask can be used over and over again. And then wash hands completely.
4. After there are more than a dozen of gloves in the stainless steel basin, pour boiling water into the basin, and steam the basin and the gloves for about an hour, the gloves are sterilized and can be used over and over again.
5. Do not sterilize the masks, because sterilization or even water can damage the mask’s structure and will affect the filtration.
6. Which kind of scientist we should listen to
Blocking other respiratory pathogens, perhaps health experts’ advices are enough. Why blocking COVID-19 is so hard? I think it’s because of COVID-19’s asymptomatic spread and its high Basic Reproduction Number “Ro”.
The current measures we are taking can block all kinds of respiratory pathogens, they may be enough to stop the spread of the flu, and apparently they are not enough to block the spread of COVID-19. A lot of people are already tired of these current measures because they are not effective enough to end this pandemic, we must find and add really effective measures to end this pandemic quickly, why don’t try my simplest and cheapest measure, wearing cotton gloves?
My two theories are designed exactly for blocking the spread of respiratory pathogens, especially for asymptomatic spread. I learned something from Dr. Anthony Fauci, and I think Dr. Fauci and other health experts also need to learn my two theories and my cotton glove conclusion.
People think Dr. Anthony has been right most of the time so far, ABC’s Steve Osunsami said, “The nation’s top infectious disease specialist, who’s gotten it right most of the time so far, has a rough winter forecast tonight.” Watch from 0:17 to 0:25 of this video at:
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/dr-anthony-fauci-us-hit-400000-covid-19-73486605
But I have been always right on everything, on every judgment, on every conclusion. I have won very debate, every bet, never lost, never ever. My classmates and colleagues don’t think Wenbin Zhao is a human being, they all think Wenbin Zhao is a god. I have a lot of remarkable, incredible, fantastic stories on mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering from school all the way to work. I designed a lot of machines and equipment in my own factory just based on my knowledge and didn’t need to do any experiment first at all, and they were all very, very, very successful. I know I’m a physicist of genius and a first-rated engineer, who can bring all kinds of expertise together to find the best solutions on a lot of problems very quickly. You know, I advised my relatives and friends to not only wear masks, but also gloves as early as on Jan, 26, and drew cotton glove conclusion in March.
So I think people should listen to me, WEAR COTTON GLOVES.
If we add this measure, that means we add a new safeguard, add another barrier to the virus, the Effective Reproduction Number “R” will go down immediately, and this pandemic will be ended very soon.
And I have been studying and thinking about COVID-19 since Wuhan lockdown on Jan 23, have spent thousands of hours. I think it’s time for me to save lives, to save millions of people’s lives. So I’d like to repeat my conclusion, “We don’t need a vaccine at all, cotton gloves and masks are sufficient to solve the COVID-19 pandemic very quickly.”
With masks we can slow the spread, with cotton gloves masks we can also slow the spread, but with both we can stop the spread. With cotton gloves, we can lift some restrictions, and people will not feel so hard, and there will be little boycott.
I think other scientists will ultimately understand my idea, they just have not thought of cotton gloves, they need to read my paper and muse on it.
Please listen to me, and use this best, simplest, cheapest and most effective measure to stop the spread of COVID-19. Wear cotton gloves, they don’t cause any problems to your hands or your health. What do you have to lose? I’m sure it could be a game-changer to solve the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hand washing is cleaning our hands intermittently, wearing cotton gloves is actually cleaning our hands constantly and protecting other people. IF HAND WASHING WORKS, COTTON GLOVES WILL ABSOLUTELY WORK FAR, FAR, FAR … BETTER.
Even if hand washing doesn’t work, cotton gloves can help prevent our bare hands from throwing the viruses we picked up into the air again, so cotton gloves will absolutely work.
