Thread by @ACPCarnegie

400 years ago disease was known to be spread by air, miasmatic theory

Despite mounting evidence using microscopes, scientific opinion clung to miasmatic theory, Florence Nightingales TB wards were designed due to the bad air risk!

Continues:
#coronavirus #SARS_CoV_2 #COVID19

1847 Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, discovered the incidence of puerperal fever (also known as childbed fever) could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetric clinics

Germ theory was about to gain credence

Continued:
#SARSCoV2 #coronavirus #COVID19

It took many years after his death for Lister, Pasteur & Koch to prove germ theory was valid

During his life he was mocked for suggesting Drs should wash their hands, where was the scientific proof?

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#coronavirus #SARSCoV2 #COVID19

Once Germ theory was established, it transformed society

Today people die of age related disease as opposed to cholera, dysentery etc

1956 Wells & Riley advocating TB was airborne, were met with a Semmelweis response, scientific scorn!

Continued
#coronavirus #SARSCoV2 #COVID19

It took a robust double blind approach over 4 years to prove TB was airborne and it remains the only truly proven airborne disease

The Semmelweis response has poured scientific scorn on anyone advocating miasmatic theories around #coronavirus

continued
#SARSCoV2 #COVID19

This innate issue within human psychology has resulted in the deaths of countless numbers of people because many governments have delegated leadership to science rather than utilising its great advisory capability to influence leadership

continued
#SARSCoV2 #coronavirus #COVID19

Those advocating limiting transmission around aerosols are being scorned & mocked due to the Semmelweis response

may take decades before an experiment forces the scoffers to have their entrenched resistance to miasmatic theory overturned
Continued
#SARSCoV2 #coronavirus #COVID19

It is quite clear that #SARSCoV2 has a strong aerosol transmission vector but folk still rely on hand cleaning (no bad thing but almost certainly ineffective)
For those fighting to have aerosol transmission recognised, understanding the Semmelweis response may assist
#coronavirus