Thread by @DrEricDing

The CDC just sent a response why they haven’t emphasized airborne. They confuse aerosol & droplets.

➡️3 modes of #COVID19 transmission:

1. Touch
2. Spray droplets
3. Inhalation

*But even at close range, exposure is more likely by inhalation than spray*—see 🧵 by @Don_Milton.

https://twitter.com/don_milton/status/1365162145852379136

2) The CDC response is in response to @briancolder’s request for information.

https://twitter.com/briancolder/status/1365156373131112450

3) the gist is that CDC refuses to act and make airborne precautions official guidelines until they can see proof airborne is a greater threat than droplets by framing it as wanting to see hard proof of “proportion of infections”—which is *absurd* from precautionary principle.

https://twitter.com/briancolder/status/1365156914691203073

4) Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely respect and love the CDC and the WHO on 99.9% of what they are doing. But sometimes they are behind the curve in accepting new data on human to human, on asymptomatic transmission, on reinfection, on airborne, ventilation, & on pediatric risks.

5) they get it, but it just takes a long long time to turn the titanic around sometimes. And sometimes they fear message confusion and often don’t want to tackle a new direction by admitting a previous position was incomplete / less than fully accepting of all emerging science

6) Dr Milton sums this up best:

If spray mostly—face shields enough and you wouldn’t need really N95 masks.... but is it? ➡️NO!

If just spray—you wouldn’t need ventilation or air cleaners for risk, and you wouldn’t see long range transmission. But is it? ➡️NO!

https://twitter.com/don_milton/status/1365167272852148224