Thread by @ProfDFrancis

Great display in elegant cartoon form to help people understand why we are trying social distancing, masks etc.

english.elpais.com/society/2020-1…

I don't know if the content is scientifically accurate or not (and have no idea how to check) but the images are easy to understand.

I am increasingly puzzled as to what an Aerosol is.

In the good old days, e.g. 1 year ago, this was all I knew about aerosols.

Now it is harder

The El País article has nice diagrams of aerosols etc

But the left side says that aerosols are a SUBSET of droplets ...

while the right side indicates that they are very dramatically DISJOINT sets, with a whole no-mans land of 100-300 nm gap between them.

The El País article has particles spontaneously accumulating in a cloud around the infected person.

While in England, our Public Health England has actually formed a committee to announce, and then have a second discussion to publically reconfirm, that cardiopulmonary resuscitation does not generate aerosols.

The basis of our English position is that 3 nurses once all managed to avoid getting SARS after doing CPR on a patient with SARS.

And since this is the only available published evidence, in England almost nothing is allowed to be considered an aerosol generating procedure.

Whose judgement seems more on-track to you?

If Public Health England are correct, i.e. almost nothing, note even cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an aerosol generating procedure, then I declare the Covid Pandemic worldwide to be over.

All we need to the members of the public to do, to bring it to a close is not do ENT surgery, orthopaedic sawing, or hand-grenading, on other members of the public in the street.

The public must be doing such things all the time, because the virus does seem to show spreading.

I didn't know that amateur surgery was such a popular hobby.

If they can please just hold off for a few weeks, it will all be over

Or if it isn't, Public Health England are wrong.

Just to reiterate I have no idea whether the science behind the article is correct. I just like the ease of understanding of the pictures.

We should put pics like that in our scientific papers.

@ASPphysician explains my own ambivalence better than me!

https://twitter.com/ASPphysician/status/1321798685991186434