Thread by @FLAHAULT

1/7 - “There is not a single documented #COVID19 infection anywhere in the world from casual outdoor interactions, such as walking past someone on a street or eating at a nearby table.”
nytimes.com/2021/05/11/bri…

2/7 - “In one study, 95 of 10,926 worldwide instances of transmission are classified as outdoors; all 95 are from Singapore construction sites. In another study, four of 103 instances are classified as outdoors; again, all four are from Singapore construction sites.”

3/7 - “The Singapore data originally [did] not categorize the construction-site cases as outdoor transmission. It could have been workplace transmission where it happens outdoors at the site, or it could also have happened indoors within the construction site.”

4/7 - “When researchers began collecting Covid data from around the world, many chose to define outdoors spaces very broadly. They deemed any setting that was a mix of outdoors and indoors to be outdoors. It meant they counted many instances of indoors transmission as outdoors.”

5/7 - “A study from Ireland, which seems to have been more precise about the definition of outdoors, put the share of such transmission at 0.1 percent. A study of 7,324 cases from China found a single instance of outdoor transmission, involving a conversation between two people.”

6/7 - “Erring on the side of protection — by exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission — may seem to have few downsides. But it has contributed to widespread public confusion about what really matters.”

7/7 - “All the while, the scientific evidence points to a conclusion that is much simpler than the C.D.C.’s message: Masks make a huge difference indoors and rarely matter outdoors.”