Remember THAT scene from Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman - "It's Airborne." ?
SARS-COV-2 is airborne via HVAC. Just like TB is - but it is way more contagious.
Still no panic, right? We know how to be safe.
Motel 6, or AirBNB - no shared HVAC, is best.
But HOW do we know?
🧵
A recent study in South Africa used Syrian Hamsters to duplicate the study that finally convinced everyone that TB was airborne.
The TB study is interesting because the military vets in VA hospitals were getting infected disproportionately.
So, they used HVAC ducting to
connect a 6 room TB ward to 150 guinea pigs.
Of those 150, only 3 PER MONTH got infected.
Illustrating that TRANSMISSIBILITY is just a CLUE to if something is airborne.
Dr. Riley went on to patent UVC tech, and develop the Wells-Riley equation which is so important in airborne
So, in South Africa they have a facility designed to study airborne very similar to the TB set up.
7 C0V1D patients' breath was routed to 216 Syrian hamsters.
58% of the hamsters got COVID antibodies in 21 days.
3 TB guinea pigs versus 100+ Syrian hamsters. Impressive!
"The simplest interpretation of our results is that human-generated aerosols seroconverted 58% of exposed hamsters after traveling the 7-10 meter distance through the ventilation system of the AIR facility," the authors wrote. "
About this study, Dr. Osterholm:
"This one was a classic study design, and we don't often say that in science," said Osterholm. "This study should put the nail in the coffin that SARS-CoV-2 is not transmitted by airborne routes."
CIDRAP
cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/using…
Study
academic.oup.com/ofid/article/1…
TB article
publichealth.jhu.edu/2020/the-exper…
TB study
sci.bban.top/pdf/10.1093/ox…
And yes, COVID is airborne.
One more thing....these patients were NOT prime infectious agents.
That happens BEFORE symptoms show up.
This thread is starting to go viral, so I am now anticipating some minimizers will attempt to criticize prior to reading the study.
Read the study. I have, and am ready.
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