Bill Nye, best known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, has taken to social media video sharing app TikTok to demonstrate to people why face masks are important, in what the Independent describes as a "coronavirus PSA."
Face masks have become a hotly debated topic in the United States. While many opt to follow public health recommendations by wearing one in public in a bid to limit the spread of COVID-19, others see the coverings as an attack on individual freedom.
Yet Bill Nye is hear to show us why masks are important when it comes to limiting the spread of COVID-19, and he's done so in a new TikTok video that amounts to part science experiment, part PSA.
"Why do people in the scientific community want you to wear a face mask when you are out in public?" Nye asks in the video.
"Masks prevent particles from my respiratory system from getting into your respiratory system... Blocking the movement of air is an old trick." He went on, per CNN.
Nye demonstrates how a homemade two-layer cotton face mask with a pipe cleaner sewn in the top to conform to his nose prevents a candle from being blown out even when he blows hard through the mask.
He then continues his experiment in a second video, showing how an N-95 also prevents the candle from being extinguished when Nye blows hard through it.
“The reason we want you to wear a mask is to protect you. Sure,” Nye says towards the end of the video.
“But the main reason we want you to wear a mask is to protect me from you and the particles from your respiratory system from getting into my respiratory system.
“Everybody, this is a matter – literally – of life and death. And when I use the word ‘literally’, I mean ‘literally’ a matter of life and death.
“So when you’re out in public, please wear a mask.”
Nye's videos have garned millions of views on TikTok since they were posted. New York governor Andrew Cuomo even shared one of them on his Twitter. "Listen to Bill Nye." He wrote.
