Thread by @akm5376

A quick 🧵 highlighting some points from the brilliant @TheLancet article authored by @trishgreenhalgh @jljcolorado @kprather88 @zeynep @DFisman @chipatucsd 1/

2) This will be biased since I admire and respect the authors - so that is my admission.

3) Ten scientific reasons in support of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
Authors provide arguments in favour of their position and detractors are free to come after these points, if they can

4) Some great quotes:
“If an infectious virus spreads predominantly through large respiratory droplets that fall quickly…”
- droplets "DROP"

5) “Such policies need not distinguish between indoors and outdoors, since a gravity-driven
mechanism for transmission would be similar for both settings.”
-Gravity is always a great equalizer

6) “...attention to mask quality and fit, and higher-grade protection for health-care staff and
front-line workers.”
- note that they are advocating for better protection for HCWs and other frontline and exposed populations

7) Now to their 10 points
1⃣ Superspreaders and overdispersion

8)
2⃣ Long-range transmission in quarantine hotels

9)
3⃣ Asymptomatic or presymptomatic transmission (no coughs and sneezes for goblets of snot, breathing and talking enough)

10)
4⃣ Indoors a much higher risk and can be reduced by ventilation

11)
5⃣ Nosocomial infections with strict droplet precautions in place

12)
6⃣ Viable virus samples from the air

13)
7⃣ Finding virus/RNA segments in palace only aerosols could reach (air filters, ducts)

14)
8⃣ Animals infected via duct connection that only aerosols can negotiate

15)
9⃣ No convincing proof of absence of #airborne transmission
🔟 Limited evidence for other modes of transmission

16) So that is the position, clearly put together through 10 points. Detractors can very well argue the science, but please refrain from straw man arguments or arguments of "this is not how we do things" \end