Dr. Ali Nouri Profile picture
Teaching @Princeton. Fmr Deputy Director @WhiteHouse; Fmr Assistant Secretary @Energy; Fmr President @Scientistsorg. Tweeting about Science and Technology.

Sep 15, 2020, 11 tweets

In case there's doubt that the virus can spread through respiratory particles that float in air and travel far, I wanted to share these studies:

1. Indoor airborne event: plant worker transmits virus to those 24ft away in area w/re-circulated air 1/n
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

2. Super-spreader at choir: of 27 participants, 70% diagnosed w/COVID-19; 36% hospitalized; 21% ICU.

It was indoors w/no ventilation. Spread was likely through both big droplets that fall to the ground & airborne aerosols that float 2/n
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

3. JAMA: super-spreader infects 23 on bus: "Airborne spread of SARS-CoV-2 seems likely to have contributed to the high attack rate in the exposed bus" The AC unit was set to "re-circulation mode" 3/n
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai…

4. CDC: Another choir super-spreading event: following practice, 32 confirmed; 20 probable secondary cases. "The act of singing, itself, might have contributed to transmission through emission of aerosols, which is affected by loudness of vocalization" 4/n
cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…

5. Coronavirus is in the air: 94 employees (out of 216) were infected in a call center in South Korea, a 43.5% attack rate! Nearly all of them sat on the same side of the building, suggesting airflow as culprit 5/n
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…

6. Another study pointing to coronavirus in the air: an asymptomatic individual sitting at a table in a restaurant infected people sitting at two other tables that were facing an Air Conditioning unit, pointing to recirculated air as the culprit 6/n
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…

7. NATURE: virus captured from aerosols: Aerosols emitted by SARS-CoV-2 patients contain the virus and the virus can infect cells 7/n
nature.com/articles/s4159…

8. Another study shows viable SARS-CoV-2 captured from air samples, this time 2-5 meters away with COVID-19 patients. Virus is stable and in respiratory aerosols that can float far. 8/n
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

9. CDC: Virus is stable in air: once airborne, SARS-CoV-2 retains ability to infect for at least 16 hrs. It's hardier in aerosols than SARS-1 or MERS

This helps explain why airborne route could be major culprit 9/n

wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…

10. Scientists have been saying this for a long time.

@DrLaPook to @kprather88:How sure are you that the virus is significantly spread through aerosolization? 10/n

11. But US and WHO officials have been slow to update guidance.

In contrast, the National Health Commission of China highlighted the possibility of aerosol transmission 6 months ago! 11/n

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