Had a brief conversation about COVID spread yesterday w/ an extended family member (K12 principle). He said 'How is is possible that in 3 minutes you explained why ventilation, air cleaners, & masks are important better than I've heard in the last year from the CDC or anyone.' 1/
2/ He also said 'Our district did some research early on and realized how import the airborne spread was, so did a bunch of things they encouraged and put air scrubbers into all of our school rooms. I never heard anything about why it works, but what you said makes it so clear.'
3/ The short conversations underscored for me what we've been saying for months. The importance of treating shared air carefully has become common knowledge in most circles. Unfortunately, the simple messages of 'why' ventilation/filtration/masks work has often been missed.
4/ Explaining 'why' we apply certain precautions helps people make informed, reasoned decisions & dispels confusions & fear. Also why so many scientists took a direct approach to public outreach via Twitter and news media. Lots of great resources, but hasn't gotten to everyone.
5/ Airborne spread of aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 is still really important - variants continue to rise in both infectivity and numbers; huge numbers in the US & the world are not vaccinated; young kids everywhere still vulnerable.

Still worth learning 'why.'
tinyurl.com/FAQ-aerosols
6/ Lots of other resources and a pretty detailed chronology of >700 media articles (+ plenty of other videos, infographics, educational links about airborne COVID transmission & prevention) are here to peruse.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
*principal, btw 🤫

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More from @HuffmanLabDU

25 Jun
"A simple but radical change — rearranging the musicians — could significantly reduce the aerosol buildup on stage, Dr. Saad and his colleagues reported"
Story by @EmilyAnthes
A few links to various other music-aerosol studies linked in thread below. 1/
nytimes.com/2021/06/23/hea…
The recent study by Hedworth et al. from the story above: "Mitigation strategies for airborne disease transmission in orchestras using computational fluid dynamics"
Interesting visualizations of the CFD model from the paper here & in the article. 2/
advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/26/e…
Separate work on wind instrument aerosol emission.
"Aerosol generation from different wind instruments" 3/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32952210/
Read 8 tweets
19 May
I had a personal epiphany of sorts last night wrt my drive this year toward COVID educ. & my recent frustration wrt CDC & masks.
A 🧵 w/ a few unsolicited reflections from my separate perspectives as an aerosol scientist, lay citizen, & father of young kids w/ health needs. (1/x)
In various recent conversations & interviews, I’ve been asked my take on the new mask recommendations. First, I always fervently point out that I am not a public health expert, and I specify angles from which I feel professionally qualified to speak. 2/
Inevitably, however, people ask about my personal choices. And on that question, I’ve been somewhat conflicted, because my opinions don’t always line up with some colleagues that I deeply respect. 3/
Read 20 tweets
14 May
The more I ponder this CDC decision on masks, the more frustrated I am, that:
- the people doing all the right things are the ones confused
- there is no guidance for people with kids & immunocompromised family
- the vacuum of guidance will bring confusion & moments of conflict
Frustrated that:
- this will likely cause at least some local/nat'l surges
- decisions happened before enough people could be vaxxed
- this announcement seemed rushed, without preparation for the messaging complexities
- I feel somehow grungy b/c of it all
BUT ... as I emphasized several times already -- I am an aerosol scientist and *NOT* a public health expert. I appreciate & defer to the public health experts with training and experience here.

As a lay person, all I'm saying is I'm still a little confused & frustrated.
Read 4 tweets
13 May
I was happy to contribute to this nice @medpagetoday article by @adambrosio_ reporting on the recent #CDC brief explicitly acknowledging inhalation risk of COVID.

Short thread with some quotes, CDC links, reflections. (1/x)
medpagetoday.com/special-report…
2/ I told her that IMO: "One of the most important aspects of the recent CDC updates is that they finally remove the ambiguous, 'close-contact' terminology, which just confused the whole discussion".

That's because ...
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…
3/ "'close-contact' refers to a distance between people -- and not a process of transmission"

"previous guidance was unclear, because it did not distinguish that inhalation can occur at both short and long distances."
Read 10 tweets
12 May
Lots of really good insight in this piece arguing that indoor mask mandates should be lifted as vaccinations increase in a community.

I especially appreciate the personal anecdotes & perspectives from @linseymarr & @j_g_allen.
By @cheyennehaslett.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/press…
"We should not undersell the vaccines. They offer excellent protection" said @linseymarr "I think we can really start thinking about ending mask mandates once everyone who wants to be vaccinated has had a chance to be fully vaccinated. And that should be in another month or two."
"The timeline on just how soon the CDC could loosen guidelines is unclear, since experts say masks indoors should stick around until every adult who wants the vaccine has had a chance to reach full vaccination. At the same time, over 116M Americans have already hit that mark."
Read 9 tweets
4 May
This story about air cleaners by @LaurenWeberHP & @By_CJewett is important b/c:
- COVID risk in schools is still real & kids <12 yrs won't be vaccinated even by fall
- many well-meaning schools are buying worthless, even harmful products
- millions of tax-payer $$ being wasted
“It’s a high cost for nothing” @marwa_zaatari said" The company has sued her & another air-quality consultant for criticizing their devices. Of the pending case, Zaatari said it is a David-versus-Goliath situation, but she will not be deterred from speaking on behalf of children.
Many products offer promises only supported by the manufacturer.
The investment in proper air-cleaning (ventilation, HEPA filtration, upper-room gUV) will provide health benefits against respiratory aerosol infection AND many other issues for a generation.
Read 4 tweets

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