SARS-CoV-2 transmits better to people nearby because aerosols are most concentrated there. And then it can transmit in a room, if we "help it" w/ low ventilation, long time etc.
3/ If it can infect in a room, it MUST infect much more easily in close proximity, where it is ~50-100 times more concentrated than in room air.
Just like smoke (an aerosol), which is far more concentrated in close proximity than at the room level.
4/ And then, droplets are NOT needed at all to explain the patterns of transmission. We can explain everything with aerosols.
Which is consistent with almost no evidence for droplets, and a ton of evidence for aerosols:
5/ But to see a high level person like @DrTomFrieden say that there is a consensus that aerosols is not important, in matters (transport through the air) where a primary discipline is aerosol science, makes us feel again very welcome into this debate...
(Cartoon thx to @DFisman)
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CO2 (above ~400 ppm outdoors) indicates the amount of exhaled air (& virus) trapped in a space
Also per recent scientific results by @ukhadds, CO2 helps SARS-CoV stay infectious in air much longer
@united flight boarding, pretty terrible!
2/ This is the trip so far:
-Low outdoors
-Pretty high ~2000 in @RideRTD bus to airport
- ok ~800 at @DENAirport, except restroom ~1500. Not sure why restrooms at this airport are so often poorly ventilated
- Then boarding on @united, ventilation OFF, so huge increase till ON
3/ For details of the recent results on how and why CO2 makes SARS-CoV-2 stay infectious much longer in the air, see this recent thread by @ukhadds
1/ "After four years of fighting about it, @WHO has finally proclaimed that viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID, can be spread through the air"
3/ "Words matter. When people heard that COVID might spread on surfaces, they wasted time wiping down groceries. People who misunderstood airborne spread needlessly wore masks on outdoor walks and veered off sidewalks to avoid their neighbors."
1/ New paper in @ScienceMagazine: "Mandating Indoor Air Quality for Public Buildings"
Explaining current status of indoor air quality standards (in short: bad or non-existent), the huge health benefits that would arise from them & proposing a path forward science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
2/ "People living in urban & industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of time indoors, breathing indoor air (IA)."
"Most countries do NOT have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces"