Client Spotlight: 4 Ways to Stop COVID-19

When you’re responsible for the workplace health and safety of 78,000 people, you’d better know what you’re doing. And if those 78,000 people are healthcare professionals in a busy urban center hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, you’d better be REALLY sure you’re working with accurate medical information and the best available tools.

As the chief medical officer overseeing the Workplace Health and Wellness Division of the Mass General Brigham hospital system in Boston, Dean Hashimoto had to face this challenge head on. In his newly released book, The Case for Masks, he distills his knowledge into a user-friendly practical guide to living safely in the COVID-19 era.

(During our two-week online collaboration on the book, I picked up numerous useful tips for venturing out safely. And began washing my hands even more obsessively than before.)

As we all know, there has been an onslaught of rumors and misinformation about mask wearing and COVID-19 in general. Because the goal of Dean’s book is to cut through the noise and promote the same medically responsible practices successfully used at Mass General Brigham, I wanted to shine some extra light on his efforts.  So after his manuscript was safely off to the publisher, we blocked off some time to talk COVID, the future of public health, and the challenge of writing a book on a two-week deadline.

How and why did you decide to write The Case for Masks?

Because of my job, I get a lot of calls and emails about various COVID issues related to work. And I’d just gotten off the phone with an employee and had a very good conversation about some practical concerns and issues. But at the end of the conversation, he said, "You know, this has been very helpful, you should really write a book!” And I said, “Yeah, absolutely!” I feel like I have a lot of information that would really be of practical benefit to people. Then a couple minutes later, I get this email from the publishing company saying “You know, we heard about your research—would you be interested in writing a book? We're interested in putting out a book on the importance of masks.”

It was a really hard thing to commit to, since I was so busy, but the first thing on my mind was that it's really very important for people to get scientific information that's useful and that’s right. And it’s become very clear that there’s a very confusing picture that people often get about what they should do. I think I really see this as basically a public health contribution.

What is the most important message you want your readers to take away?

I think the important part for most readers is practical, how to use masks and other personal health rules. So besides wearing a mask when you're out in public and when there's a possibility of exposing your breathing to others, you should wash your hands much more frequently these days, five to 10 times a day on average is what is recommended. Also, practice daily symptom monitoring—be aware of your body and to be aware that it's really important that even with mild symptoms, you shouldn't expose yourself to others, including those that are in your household—because this is the time when you’re most contagious. Also, of course, social distancing. Once you combine social distancing with wearing a mask, if everyone was willing to do that, we really could put an end to this pandemic.

What did you think when COVID-19 first emerged? Did you think it would have the impact that it did?

Back in December and January, we never really expected it to affect the United States very much. But of course, we were paying close attention to it because of international travel—we understood it could become a public health problem for us, but I think we were all surprised by the developments that occurred in February and March. I do remember one weekend reading six or seven major research articles, and every one of them pointing to how much more infectious the virus was than SARS or the swine flu.

A vivid memory I have is towards the end of February, my wife and I had agreed to take my dad, who lives in California, to Hawaii to see friends. We were staying in San Francisco the night before the flight—it was Saturday—I couldn't get to sleep, so I picked up my cell phone and just started reading various news articles, and there was an article by ABC News saying that the University of California Medical Center at Davis had quarantined 123 of its workers because of exposure to COVID.  And that's when it really struck home with me because it made me just immediately think of the impact of this virus on the workforce. I had to cancel my trip and basically to turn around and come back to Boston. I felt really bad, I was really looking forward to it, but my wife was good enough to take my dad on to Hawaii.

But I'm glad that I did since even though I had blocked off that whole week, when I got back to work on Monday, it was wall-to-wall meetings, from 7 am to 8 pm—sometimes I was in two meetings at the same time!

The Case for Masks was your first book—what was the book-writing process like for you?

The hardest part was just getting started. I have a very busy, busy schedule, and I thought, “Oh my gosh, I took on too much.” But I really wanted to do it, because I thought it was important from a public health standpoint.  My job is very busy, but for two weeks, I was able to cut down the number of my meetings and free up some time, but it was mostly written during evenings. So that was a challenge. Thank goodness, you helped me by being an amazing editor, and really coming through for me in terms of being able to do this in a timely way—I think you just did such a wonderful job.

Towards the end, I was so tired mentally, and I remember one day I wasted an entire day, which was a huge loss. I just couldn't write. But then, what I decided to do in that last chapter was basically reprise the previous couple of chapters. And that just led me down the road to figuring out the best way to write. After your editing, it became fabulous, exactly what I wanted in terms of a message.

“If everyone was willing to combine social distancing with wearing a mask, we could put an end to this pandemic.”

Back to a darker topic—how long do you think this pandemic is going to last? And what will post-COVID life look like?

I think that this is going to last for a while, which is bad news. My concern is that people may have false hopes, in terms of, for example, vaccines or developing a miracle drug that’ll make this go away in the next few months. I don't think realistically that's going to happen. And I think that realistically, it's going to be in a year and a half, a couple years, at least in terms of being a significant issue, maybe longer. There is even a possibility that this might become endemic and recurrent, like the flu.

And so I think that one needs to develop a personal safety strategy that allows one to go forward and to live as normal a life as possible while recognizing that we need to reduce our risk level to a reasonable degree and contribute individually to the effort to end the pandemic. If this is going to be ended by human will, it’s is going to involve universal masks.

Dean took his book from an outline to a finished manuscript in just two weeks—I can help keep you on track and accountable and ensure your final manuscript tells a compelling story. If you have an important story that needs to be told but you don’t know how to start, contact me for a no-obligation chat.

And be kind to yourself and others—wear a mask whenever you’re out and around your fellow humans!