A Dangerous Myth: Does Speaking Imply Breathing?

A Dangerous Myth: Does Speaking Imply Breathing? (3 November 2020 - Annals of Internal Medicine) by: Anica C. Law, MD, MS, Gary E. Weissman, MD, MSHP, and Theodore J. Iwashyna, MD, PhD

(https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-4186)

On 25 May 2020, George Floyd pleaded at least 16 times, “I can't breathe.” One officer in attendance nonetheless told bystanders, “He's talking. He's fine”. Mayor Hal Marx of Petal, Mississippi, posted on Twitter the following day, “If you can say you can't breathe, you're breathing.” Similar arguments were put forth by New York Representative Peter King and police officials in the wake of Eric Garner's death in 2014. The belief that a person's ability to speak precludes the possibility of suffocation is not true and can have fatal consequences. Although the medical community may suspect that vocalization does not guarantee adequate respiration, they may not be sufficiently familiar with the relevant physiology to allow them to speak with authority. Here, we review basic respiratory physiology and highlight our role as clinicians and scientists in educating the public against relying on speech as a sign of adequate respiration—especially when this medical misconception is used to propagate injustice or violence.