Really interesting findings. tl;dr: rigourous study confirming that infectious COVID virus is found in the aerosol particles down to the tinest ones (<1 micron) that are given off in breathing and speaking, and can stay in the air for hours. Even more tl;dr: definitely airborne.
Previous studies have found viral RNA in aerosol particles that float in the air - but skeptics have suggested this is "dead" RNA. Other studies have tried and failed to grow actual COVID from these air-extracted samples - but that's just cos their experiments didn't work... 2/
...for whatever reason. This paper did it properly, and found you can extract the aerosols from air near patients, and the COVID in them can replicate. 3/
They also looked at different sizes of airborne droplets: really tiny ones (<1 thousandth of 1 mm) are given off from deep within the airways (larynx and lungs) in breathing and speaking as well as coughing. These, as well as larger ones, are infectious. 4/ end
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Keeping R<1 will become easier and easier with vaccination. Under these conditions, covid levels die away, and flare-ups can be stamped out.
Some "steady state" level of COVID" that we "live with" isn't a thing, cos that's not how exponential growth works. Definitely not where (1) we don't have to do anything restrictions-wise, and (2) we still have some control over that level.
The new COVID variant and how we should behave to be safe. tl;dr: it hasn't acquired resistance to anything; soap, distancing, masks and fresh air all still work; but we should act like people indoors are giving off more than they were.
First the science: the new variant is surrounded by the same lipid coating so still killed by washing hands with warm water + soap. Infection still carried in the same tiny droplets given off when breathing / talking; fresh air / masks / distance still reduce this transmission.
Difference is in the protein it makes and how it interacts with our bodies. Somehow easier to infect. So, either infected people breathe out more virus, or you need to breathe in less virus to get infected. But the actions we need to take are the same either way.
COVID can be airborne, in floating “aerosol” particles. We know how these particles move, and how long they stay in the air. What does this mean for minimising risk? TL;DR: ventilate rooms to stop aerosol levels building up; masks and distancing still help but 2m not magic bullet
Aerosol particles are given off especially when someone is talking, without a mask, like a smoker giving off smoke.
If that person has COVID, and someone else breathes in their aerosol, that can pass on COVID infection.
Indoors, over time, the aerosol levels build up and the particles spread further from that person, so everyone else is breathing in more aerosol, meaning more risk of catching COVID. Superspreading events have shown that the particles can spread further than 2m.