Thread by @akm5376

I will tell you the story of an open #window which did not work, from personal experience. Short 🧵on prescriptive vs performance based guidance 1/

2) Over the past 8-10 months, I have force-fed family members and close friends my opinion on how #COVID19 is #Airborne and so irrespective of govt. or public health bodies guidance, they are more or less aware of preventive measures that could work.

3) So, they are aware of the need for ventilation and why it works. They know they need to open a window and why they need to do so (not just because "I told you so").

4) My brother was about to leave our hometown and return to his university in South Africa. To be on the safe side, about 10 days before his travel, he decided to have a "say goodbye" get together with his friends before leaving. Plan being to keep at home after that.

5) They meet on a Sunday, in an office of one of the friends. Sunday, so very few people. They are still not inside, they are gathered outside since they intend to have a cup of tea.

6) Then it started to rain. So, they had to move inside. But my brother, to be cautious, opened all the windows in the space, even if it was raining and some water could get in.

7) However, while they continued to have a chat over the tea, as he found out later, someone in the office had diligently gone over and closed the windows - because they did not want rain water getting in

8) To the best of our tracing, this is where he (my brother) got infected. And after about 4 days, symptoms started showing and then he was in for a painful period of almost 10 days of high fever.

9) Thankfully, at home, he did not transmit to either of my parents - they had not started masking till the positive test result but lots of open windows, without fail.

10) Window opening, though seems easy, is not always doable. There is always issues of pests, noise, other disease vectors (mosquitoes), inclement weather...
And then there are high density urban settlements where many may not even have a window

11) "Open windows" is a prescriptive guidance
It does not say why. It does not say what is the end goal to be achieved from open windows.

12) What we need are performance based guidance and ideally, measures of the performance as well.

13) For ventilation, it could be CO2 based measure. "I want CO2 level under 800 ppm"
Achieve it as you must in a certain scenario. Open windows or doors or use fans to increase air flow through window...

14) Also needed - why do I want good ventilation/open windows? To reduce the build up of possibly infectious respiratory droplets.
Is it okay if I mask and keep distance?
No it is not, this is a parallel, complimentary protection.

15) Okay, I will open windows. But it could be uncomfortable. Should I close them then?
We want you to improve ventilation, not just open a window. And let us be upfront with you, it could be uncomfortable at times. But, it is safer than getting infected with Covid19

16) So that is my story on open windows, and performance vs prescription.
Hope it helps you convey the point to others. \end