Thread by @DrEricDing

⚠️WHO can’t seem to get its own airborne info straight: @WHO says virus of #COVID19 doesn't seem to linger in air. Yet @DrTedros himself previously said himself “Ebola is lousy... Corona is airborne”. (See video of Tedros saying it). Many experts also agree it is airborne... 1/x

2) “I think the WHO is being irresponsible in giving out [that virus doesn't seem capable of spreading through air over distance >3 feet]. This misinformation is dangerous," says Dr. Donald Milton, infectious dis aerobiologist @UMDPublicHealth. #COVID19. npr.org/2020/03/28/823…

3) “Based on that, the agency recommends "airborne precautions" when medical workers do those procedures.”
"I don't think they know, and I think they are talking out of their hats," Milton says. #COVID19

4) “people like to think that there's some sharp, black-and-white distinction between "airborne" viruses that can linger and float in the air and ones that spread only embedded in larger droplets through close contact, but the reality of transmission is far more nuanced. #COVID19

5) When epidemiologists are working in the field, trying to understand an outbreak of an unknown pathogen, it's not possible for them to know exactly what's going on as a pathogen is spread from person to person, Milton says. #COVID19

6) "The epidemiologists say if it's 'close contact,' then it's not airborne. That's baloney," Milton says. "Epidemiologists cannot tell the difference between droplet transmission and short-range aerosol transmission." ➡️I agree w/ Dr Milton, that many epidemiologists don’t know.

7) BOTTOM LINE: Thus if we don’t know, then @WHO should not boldly declare it is not airborne. Or in very least, get its messaging and science for certain first. This is causing lots grief & endangering HCWs by saying not airborne when unsure. #COVID19. Again, Tedros on airborne:

8) That said, @WHO is a great organization with wonderful public health workers doing brave things like going to places most of us would never do. But it needs to get its facts straight and err on the side of caution rather than being dismissive of airborne risks. #COVID19