Episode 4 - Police Chief Harrison's Message & Mask Discussion

Welcome to the City of Plantation's Podcast. In this Episode, Police Chief Howard Harrison and Deputy Chief Joel Gordon discuss the recent Executive Orders released by the City's Mayor, Lynn Stoner. Afterward, Deputy Chief Joel Gordon and Division Chief Ezra Lubow discuss the need for the public to cover their faces and the masks that should be used and why. This Podcast is aimed at keeping the residents of Plantation informed regarding how the City and its various Departments are responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Please subscribe to this podcast, as we will be producing new episodes on a regular basis.

Guest Speaker: Police Chief Harrison
Host: Deputy Chief Gordon / Division Chief Lubow
Producer: Ezra Lubow
Music: Oakwood Station - Summer Breeze Memories
Cover Art: The City of Plantation

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hello plantation. Welcome to the city of plantations podcast. I'm dr Jay formerly with plantation information radio. Thank you for tuning in. We hope the information provided within the episodes of this podcast helped keep you your family and your friends safe during this pandemic. Today. We are pleased to have with us plantation police chief Howard Harrison. Chief Harrison has been involved with the planning and response to the coven 19 situation since the city initiated its response several months ago. Chief Harrison is a key member of the city's emergency management team and has served in a lead role through many major events over the past several years. We've asked chief Harrison here to discuss some of the issues and concerns about the executive orders regarding safer at home and social distancing. So chief Harrison, first of all, welcome and thank you for joining us. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Chief, can you provide us with an overview of the orders that are currently in place regarding social distancing and safer at home?

Speaker 1 (01:02):

Sure. A social distancing, also called physical distancing means keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home to practice social or physical distancing. It's recommended that you stay at least six feet or two meters from other people. Do not gather in large groups, stay out of crowded places and avoid mass gatherings in addition to everyday steps to prevent Covid 19 keeping space between you and others is one of the best tools we have to avoid being exposed to this virus and slowing it spread locally and across the country. Safer at home is an order to individuals saying you can engage in essential services, essential activities, but other than that you need to stick close to home. Limit your movements and personal interactions outside of your home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities. Senior citizens and individuals with a significant underlying medical condition should stay at home and take all measures to limit the risk of exposure to coven 19.

Speaker 1 (02:16):

Excellent. That's quite the overview. Um, so if you can differentiate for us the difference between the two, safer at home and social distance. And what makes them different. Social distancing is what you do when you are in contact with anyone who is outside of your home. Safer at home is staying at home unless you absolutely need to venture out. Okay. That's, that's terrific. And it's that simple. Yes. Right. It's really just that straightforward. Absol

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello plantation. Welcome to the city of plantations podcast. I'm dr Jay formerly with plantation information radio. Thank you for tuning in. We hope the information provided within the episodes of this podcast helped keep you your family and your friends safe during this pandemic. Today. We are pleased to have with us plantation police chief Howard Harrison. Chief Harrison has been involved with the planning and response to the coven 19 situation since the city initiated its response several months ago. Chief Harrison is a key member of the city's emergency management team and has served in a lead role through many major events over the past several years. We've asked chief Harrison here to discuss some of the issues and concerns about the executive orders regarding safer at home and social distancing. So chief Harrison, first of all, welcome and thank you for joining us. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Chief, can you provide us with an overview of the orders that are currently in place regarding social distancing and safer at home? Sure. A social distancing, also called physical desyncing means keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home to practice social or physical distancing. It's recommended that you stay at least six feet or two meters from other people. Do not gather in large groups, stay out of crowded places and avoid mass gatherings in addition to every everyday steps to prevent Cova 19 keeping space between you and others is one of the best tools we have to avoid being exposed to this virus and slowing it spread locally and across the country. Safer at home. It's an order to individuals saying you can engage in essential services, essential activities, but other than that you need to stick close to home. Limit your movements and personal interactions outside of your home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities. Senior citizens and individuals with a significant underlying medical condition should stay at home and take all measures to limit the risk of exposure to coven 19. Excellent. That's quite the overview. Um, so if you can differentiate for us the difference between the two, safer at home and social distance. And what makes them different. Social distancing is what you do when you are in contact with anyone who is outside of your home. Safer at home is staying at home unless you absolutely need to venture out. Okay. That's, that's terrific. And it's that simple. Yes. Right. It's really just that straightforward. Absolutely. Terrific. Okay, so I think we're all aware of how these orders have affected our business community and the impact that it's really had on the economic conditions, the city. What do our citizens need to understand? Should they decide to venture out? You know, they're, they're looking to get essential supplies or pickup meals or whatever. What do they need to appreciate about all of this? People should only be venturing out for the most essential of things like food and medicine. If they decide to venture out, the CDC recommends wearing a face mask to limit the spread of the virus. As you know, the mayor issued a new executive order today, which encourages everyone working, living, visiting, or doing business within the city of plantation to wear a facial covering per the CDC guidelines, a cloth covering a sufficient, if you are not directly involved with patient care, residents should also practice social distancing while picking up essential items. Special hours have also been set up at various stores for our seniors. We are asking that the people really limit any movement outside the home if and when possible. So what about going to our unsecured parks or just being out on the streets? Okay. The same is really true of going to the parks and being out on the streets. We're not saying you cannot go outside and exercise or take a walk, but it is the time when the citizens need to truly be aware of and practice social distancing for the purposes of avoiding, exposing themselves to infection. So how does the police department manage incidents where these orders are not being respected? Overall? The citizens of plantation are respecting the orders. The police department is responding to complaints as they are reported, but we have yet to respond to a situation where we did not gain compliance simply through effectively communicating our emphasis remains education and compliance finds it arrest or an absolute last measure and have not been employed in the city of plantation to date. And has there been any pushback from the community? And if so, what's been done about it? Not at all that the art community has done wonderful and obeying the various orders and working with us to help contain this pandemic and the limited number of incidents that we have had. Education and conversation has been the key. Uh, we are all in this together so we're well that's good to hear. Um, you know, I'm glad the community has really embraced the spirit of it. That's just so important. So critical. Yes. We really have not had the need to take any true enforcement measures on any of this stuff at this point. So far our educational campaigns, both through our various city social media outlets and through other contact have worked great. We hope it continues this way so that there is no need for us to to affect weight any arrest. All right, so now I'm going to ask you a tough question. This past week we lost two Sheriff's deputies, both here in Broward and in Palm beach County. Uh, we also understand that a number of law enforcement officers or law enforcement officers are becoming infected at a greater rate then other first responders or in some cases healthcare professionals and almost on a daily basis or on a daily basis, your officers are in the line of fire, so to speak. What are we doing to keep them safe? What needs to be done? What can we do better to, to keep them safe? Yes. This has been a very tough week for law enforcement. The deaths of the two officers should serve as a reminder to the public why we are asking for their cooperation during this time. We're requesting that the public obey these local and state orders so that our officers do not have to put themselves in harm's way while responding to an unnecessary call. We also asked it that when citizens make contact with our officers, that they meet them outdoors when possible, maintain social distance and wear facial coverings. So it's really important that, that we get our, our residents to understand the risks that our officers are taking and to do their part, to try and keep them safe. Right. Right. Now, uh, let's, let's be a family. Let's keep each other protected and safe. You can do that by obeying the law and staying home unless you are traveling to or from an essential service or job practice. Social distancing when out in the public and help limit the calls that we get to the police department so that our officers and others are not needlessly exposed. Finally, chief, if there's a single message that can go out to our citizens, what would that be? Right now, let's be a family. I've lived in this city for many years, grew up in the city, uh, of all times. Now is the time that we all need to come together again. We're all in this together. Absolutely correct. I couldn't agree with you more. That's so important. Chief Harrison, thank you for your time, expertise and leadership through this crisis. And please extend to your officers our sincere thanks for their commitment and their dedication. And folks, let's not forget those police officers are out there on the front lines, putting themselves in harm's way to try and protect us. Please stay safe and stay well. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure in and you've and you stay safe as well. The fire department and EMS, we're a team. Uh, and as I said earlier, we're a family as well. Uh, we're all in this together and it's a privilege to be here today. Thank you. Thank you. So once again, a big thank you to police chief Howard Harrison and discussing the mayor's executive orders and now we'd like to continue some of that conversation. I'm here with the medicine man, division chief, Ezra Lebow who wears many hats at the fire department. He oversees our EMS division is actually the developer and engineer for these podcasts and serves as the infection control officer for not only the fire department, but lately has been serving as the point

Speaker 2: 8:56

person for the entire city. Regarding the coven outbreak. So I guess we're calling this segment, dr Jay and the medicine man. We're going to take a deep dive into some of the more complex topics of what it means to cover up, why, what the different types of masks are and who should be wearing which ones. So with that chief Lebow let's get into it.

Speaker 3: 9:20

All right. Thank you Joel. I think the important conversation we need to have is, is, uh, why is the coverup order and why is the coverup recommendation from the CDC important? The thing to understand what the CDC guideline is, is that it goes hand in hand with the social distancing, um, without appropriate social distancing, without being cognizant every time we're out and about, of course only engaged in essential activities. The covering of one's face along with social distancing provides an additional layer of protection and helps to reduce the transmission of this virus. Once you agree with without.

Speaker 2: 10:06

Absolutely. I, you know, it and it's not just one thing, fixes everything. There's a, there's a combination of things we do together. Obviously the covering up to social distancing. And let's not forget the most important piece. Hand-washing.

Speaker 3: 10:19

Hand-washing. Absolutely. And it's, it's funny because before we started dealing with this virus, um, it was amazing how many children, let's say, right? We're in maybe hand-washing the in the most effective way possible, if at all. Right? So public service announcements and a big, uh, public education campaign, um, with the sing happy birthday song twice gives you approximately 20 seconds of hand-washing. And, uh, you know, even some of the misconceptions about hand washing that it's gotta be done with scolding hot water and things of that nature simply aren't true because the, the true benefit to hand-washing for a significant amount of time is generating that friction. Utilizing soap, getting those hands are really clean.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Absolutely. You know, it's interesting when, when I went through my nursing training, the very first thing they teach you day one, is how to wash your hands and you grow up, go and you know, you walk into class the first day, they go, okay, we're all gonna learn how to wash our hands today. And you're like, are you kidding me? And then when you're all done, it's like, Oh my goodness. Wow.

Speaker 3: 11:23

And we see now the importance of it. There've been several, uh, public campaigns by the CDC in various departments of health throughout the country in different levels of government emphasizing the need for hand-washing. And, and one of the ones I saw recently said, it's in the hands, right? Because everything we touch, all the surfaces that we touch on a regular basis are, are going to be there without that component along with social distancing and covering our faces, the process is incomplete.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Absolutely. So critically important that people understand how much their hands are in contact with the outside world and how much that hand washing is critical. Absolutely. Let, let's, let's roll back now to the, the covering up the mayor's executive order, re, re, re not requiring but suggesting or recommending that everybody cover up when they're out and about. Why is covering up so critically important?

Speaker 3: 12:23

Well, when we approach it from a multifaceted approach, what we look at is obviously the, the personal hygiene of hand-washing, the social distancing of providing, uh, distance and proximity to other individuals. And then the face covering. And, and this has been somewhat of a controversial discussion because of the type of face covering and who should wear what, which we'll get into. But essentially utilizing a cloth face mask of various designs, there's, there's many out there is going to assist in capturing the individual's exhalation, who's wearing that mask, thereby reducing the transmission of whatever, uh, viral or bacterial compounds they have in their breath from escaping and getting out into the air. So with the cloth recommendations, what the CDC is essentially saying is this will help to reduce those potential transmissions from individuals who may not even know they're ill or carrying the coven 19 virus. Um, along with social distancing, along with the rest of the components built in, uh, this will provide a, an added layer of protection for transmission. And if anyone's was watching the news and looking at some of the literature that was coming out, the concern was making this recommendation to the public would potentially lower the, uh, cognizant of that social distancing. So the CDC was concerned about that. We, we don't want to deemphasize the social distancing by telling people to wear a mask because those two components have to work together.

Speaker 2: 14:14

Absolutely. And I, that's critically important. We said that right at the top is, you know, all three in combination or everything we do in combination is what really is going to make a difference, not just one or the other. So, you know, let's see, you mentioned the cloth masks and you said several different others. We've seen so many variations of this. The professionally made ones, you know, the, the different versions of what's worn and you see on the news and in the pictures and then you see people wrapping themselves with, like you said, cloth masks or you know, um, I dunno. Gauze, tee shirts, making masks out of paper and cake, coffee filters. What, what for the average individual, what makes a good mask? Well, if, if, if they had to say, this is what I need for a mask, right? What would you, we recommend as the best material.

Speaker 3: 15:04

And, and that's where we make the distinction. So there are several considerations. The first consideration is the material really isn't as important as the use and the, the delivery of or our, I should say the maintenance of the mask itself. So whether it be cotton or polyester, uh, any type of material that is going to be able to provide some sort of barrier to exhalation of potential contaminants into the air is going to be useful. When I say maintenance, the big consideration with maintenance is the regular moisture that's in our exhalation that comes from the inside of our bodies, um, is going to moisten or create some moisture on the mask. So the importance here is to ensure that we're maintaining the masks. And the best recommendation that I can give is for the majority of people who are going out for an hour or two to conduct some essential business, whether it be grocery shopping, uh, seeing a physician, seeing an attorney, whatever it may be. The recommendation is when you come home, uh, clean out mask, wash it, clean it, dry it, uh, before you use it again. And like you mentioned, because of these materials in these massacres are already the available. Some people are going to be making them themselves, other people are going to be purchasing them and there really is no specific guideline on how to make it or how to use it. We're, we're kind of just doing the best that we can by utilizing what's available and uh, and trying to maintain them and keep them clean.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Awesome. So being, being the average citizen. All right. And I have a choice to of which mask I want to use. What's the difference between them? We have the[inaudible], we have the surgical masks, we have the cloth masks, we have hazmat suits. We've got, you know, firefighter breathing apparatus. I is crazy as you can get. What's the difference and how does the average person make a choice? So I think what we're looking

Speaker 3: 17:05

[inaudible] here is we're looking at the difference between, um, the public who, if they're practicing social distancing has a relative

Speaker 2: 17:15

Tivoli, a low probability

Speaker 3: 17:18

of transmitting infection. And that's why the cloth mask is substantial enough for the average citizen or resident. When it comes to the medical grade masks, like the surgical masks, which are basically a provide more protection from the exhalation of contaminants into the air by utilizing tightly woven polypropylene and capturing that a lot better than the cloth or the N 95 masks, which not only protect people on the other side of the mask, but the individual wearing the mask as well or even going up to the half mass painter style masks which used cartridges. Um, and then going all the way up to the gas mask, which is obviously is, you know, what our medical alert or covert 19 truck, uh, utilize is. So the best way to decide what's right for me is, um, again, the, the recommendation for the average public because they have the ability to social distance where healthcare providers in first responders don't is that that cloth mask, the medical providers, the healthcare providers and first responders, they don't have an option to social distance. You can't provide lifesaving interventions from six feet away or eight feet away. So they, there's that up close and personal component and there needs to be a, a greater level of protection. And, and as a sidebar, the other conversation is by the public utilizing cloth masks and reducing their purchasing of their purchases of, uh, professional or medical grade equipment that leaves that available for first responders in healthcare providers because right now it's a daily challenge to find those supplies.

Speaker 2: 19:10

So it's really critically important that the public understand that it's not that they're, they're, they're a lesser group, that they're not important. Um, really, but they don't need that intense level of protection. And those supplies are critically needed for those who are providing patient care.

Speaker 3: 19:28

Correct. Correct. And I would say that the most important distinguishing factor is the ability to social distance where healthcare providers don't have that luxury. Um, emergency medical personnel don't have that luxury. So they're, they're not going to be able to, to practice social distancing the way that individuals in the public can. And therefore the, the level of protection can be reduced a little bit.

Speaker 2: 19:56

All right. Great. So that's terrific. So I, you know, I think we, we've hit this pretty hard. I mean, we, you know, we've gotten into a deep explanation with different types of masks. Um, a little bit of an anatomy lesson about what happens when you breathe. Um, what else, what, what, what can we putting a wrapper on this, if you will, what can we leave with, with the general public, with plantations residents as to the whole mask and cold covering up issue and, and the value of the mayor's executive order?

Speaker 3: 20:26

Well, I think the value of the mayor's executive orders at the mayor recognizes the importance of approaching the reduction of transmission of this virus in a multifaceted fashion, right? Um, the social distancing, the stay at home order, unless you absolutely have to be out, uh, to shop, to care for yourself, to care for your family, things of that nature with the covering up, again, maintain the mask. It really doesn't matter where you get them from. An, actually, I think the benefit to this is that there are a lot of individuals who may be unemployed right now who are trying to find alternative means to bring a couple of bucks in and we can support some local handiwork by utilizing those individuals and purchasing their masks.

Speaker 2: 21:11

Another way the community can support itself,

Speaker 3: 21:13

correct. Right. We're all in this together. Um, the approach to, uh, basically the, the ultimate goal with this situation is to minimize transmission. To use that catch phrase that's become very popular, flatten the curve, which we are starting to see at this point. We are starting to see changes in that. I think it's, it's that multifaceted approach. Save the, the medical grade equipment for the healthcare providers and the first responders who are, who are struggling to find it on a daily basis and uh, maintain your masks regardless of what mask you get. Make sure that you keep them clean, you keep them dry. And, um, and I think that's, that's the best way to approach this.

Speaker 2: 21:54

Terrific. Okay. Great. Well, I hope this information was useful to everybody who's listening out there. Um, again, a lot of information, lot to absorb. Uh, remember that you can find all this information as well as the latest updates on the coven outbreak on the city's website@plantation.org. Just click on the coven link and it takes you to a whole collection of updates and news and infographics and just about everything you can imagine regarding coven. Um, also don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and to tune into these podcasts and they're available not only by clicking on the website but also through,

Speaker 3: 22:32

we have a, we have Apple podcast set up, we have Google podcast set up, we have a Spotify set up and shortly we should have iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and a Pandora set up. So those are, those are going to be online shortly.

Speaker 2: 22:50

Terrific. Terrific. All right, so we will be posting these every Friday, so every Friday you can look for a new update. Um, and with that I'm going to thank the medicine man for joining us today. Thank you very much. This is dr J saying, stay well, stay healthy and don't forget, wash your hands. You've been listening to the city of planned patient podcasts here in plantation. We're working hard to bring you the latest, most accurate information available about the Corona virus pandemic. Remember, if you have specific questions, you can email them to ask cityHall@plantation.org don't forget to visit the COBIT 19 page on our website and register forever bridge for up to the minute changes regarding the outbreak. We want to thank you for tuning in and taking the time to listen to the experts about how to keep yourselves, your family, and your business safe and healthy during the prices. And don't forget to wash your hands, cover your cough and maintain a safe distance.