Always a great study when tweeted out by Dr. Noakes - let's dive in.
✅2 cases of transmission from bus drivers to passengers up to more than 9 feet/ 3 meters.
✅Genomic confirmation
✅Airflow traced - please see Dr. Noakes original thread for commentary on the method used.
Limitations:
📌Facemask compliance unsure
📌Fomite possible. Not likely
📌Community transmission possible - but not likely
Two trips and two separate van drivers involved.
Both trips - windows closed, ventilation NOT on recirculate, heaters on medium fan.
First trip - 4 patients on 2-hour trips to and from the hospital on December 2, 2020. Driver tested +positive on December 3, 2020.
Van below.
Driver had a high viral burden: 15.9
Driver and all passengers wore cloth facemasks and only interacted during boarding and transportation.
Second trip - The second driver transported 3 patients on the same 2-hour trip in the same van on
January 23, 2021, the day his symptoms began.
Van below.
Driver viral load was high - 24.
Driver was not in a mask, but the passengers were.
What everyone is most interested in - airflow tracing.
Heater on? Smoke released from the driver seat at headrest height rose and flowed toward the back of the van.
When heater and fans were off, no "microspheres" were recovered from the seats or air.
Next tweet method...
I don't remember seeing this exact technique before in any of the studies I've read. Not saying it's not valid at all. Just haven't seen it.
Contact Tracing Method
Genomic Method.
Our take-aways?
👉 #CoVidIsAirborne.
👉 #BetterMasks are necessary.
👉 If you open diagonal windows, you can create an air curtain. Like in this case, passenger and the window directly behind the driver.
In this case, that last bullet point was not possible due to passenger
windows not being able to be opened.
H/T @linseymarr for the air curtain suggestion about 1 million pandemic years ago!
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As an anonymous clean air advocate, I've put a bit of thought into how to present, well, my expertise.
If someone were to say, "How do I know you know what you are talking about? Are you a doctor, or a virologist?"
To which, I would say...."No, but that's a good thing.
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I have focused on aerosol and masking science. Because it is those fields that give us the most information on how airborne particles, aerosols, get from Person A to Person B.
My expertise is derived from the great studies of Dr. Lindsay Marr, MacArthur recipient. Dr. Prather,
double National Academy member, Dr Milton, inventor of the Gesundheit, aerosol scientist and medical doctor; Dr Coleman whose group found that duckbill N95s captured 98% of emitted respiratory aerosols, and more excellent individual aerosol scientists.
A study demonstrated 100% PERFECT protection against SARS2 w/ readily available KF94s
✅ 181 HCWs
✅ 1 got SARS2 antibodies, but an epi investigation -> the infection happened elsewhere.
😡 The final checkpoint was March 2021. N95s only became freely available 1 month later
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This is in comparison to a Swiss study during the same rough time-frame. A study which did NOT show the same excellent results, but dismal results. Why?