Thread by @swapneilparikh

Herd immunity wont protect you: #COVIDisAirborne

80% of your network is vaccinated. They form a ring of immunity around you, they reduce your chance of contact with an infected person.
But virus is airborne, so it floats right over that immune ring and gets you

A thread 🧵
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When a substantial number of people are vaccinated COVID-19 cases will drop, we will even contain the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean unvaccinated people are safe!

Imagine you work in an enclosed office without ventilation or air filtration. No attention to indoor air quality
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80% of office co-workers are vaccinated. 10% aren’t vaccinated but recovered from COVID-19. 10% are not vaccinated nor have had COVID-19, they’re unprotected. Sam is one person in the unprotected group. Sam goes out to bars. Sam likes to party. Lovely chap. Good for a pint.
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Sam goes to a poorly ventilated and crowded bar. There are a few infectious COVID-19 patients at the bar. Sam is unprotected so Sam gets infected. Sam comes to office. When he coughs, sneezes, speaks and just exhales he expels plenty of virus laden aerosols.
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The virus is airborne and it floats on the air currents in the office. It floats in the break room. It floats in the lift. It floats in the washroom. The 10% of the office that’s unprotected may now get infected despite 80% of the office being vaccinated.
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Now consider that the virus is evolving to become more and more transmissible. It’s becoming better at making infected individuals generate more infectious aerosols and it’s becoming more infectious so even less virus than before can cause infection.
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If office had insisted on universal vaccination
+
Frequent rapid testing
+
Air quality that’s safe for health
Then everyone would have been safe.
The immunity of the herd can’t protect you from SARS-CoV-2. You need your own immunity!
When new variants emerge the rules change!
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