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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I have my head so far up the governmental cow's butt on this one, I think I am uniquely qualified to answer on the difference between Biden and Trump on H5N1.
Biden's USDA is still denying airborne, and is still not telling the Spanish-speaking dairy workers that it is airborne. Or to wear an N95.
Biden's CDC is running Spanish ads on the radio and Facebook. Offering testing. Workers still not trusting the CDC.
Trump will get the CDC to continue to offer free testing clinics - and arrest the workers when they come in.
Nobody will want to milk or take care of the cows. They will continue to get sick, but really die without the intensive care they actually need with H5N1.
There is a group called the HICPAC that tells the CDC what they should do regarding whether or not the guy with bright pink eyes in the bed next to you is wearing an N95 or not.
Whether your doctor comes back from Bermuda with
Covid - and either wears an N95 when he sees you or not.
Whether the hospital gives you attitude about your N95 - or joins you in wearing an N95.
They are going to vote today to say that Surgical Masks are Respiratory Protective Equipment - which is a lie. Per NIOSH/ OSHA.
What can you do?
Read this thread and then call the Inspector General’s office is very receptive. The direct phone number is 202-619-3148. Tell them the HICPAC did what is in that thread, and about them ignoring all airborne evidence.