Thread by @DrEricDing

HUGE—In South Korea 🇰🇷, major study found mandatory wearing of masks reduced #COVID19 rates by 93.5% and practicing both social distancing with masks on public transport during peak hours reduced infection rates by 98.1%. 👀 #MaskUp #COVIDisAirborne science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

2) Wanna know what doesn’t work? Stupid plexiglass. Because the virus is airborne. That’s why masks—especially premium masks are key. #COVIDisAirborne macleans.ca/society/health…

3) “Although 🇰🇷 is one of the first countries to be affected by COVID-19 outbreak, the containment measures adopted by the government were successful in controlling the disease via a combination of widespread testing, aggressive contact tracing… & social distancing measures.”

4) “Since the outbreak, the demand to travel on public transportation service has dropped, especially after the government raised the infectious disease alert level to “serious” on February 23 (3). To safely reopen the economy, access to public transportation service is critical”

5) “Hence, guidelines have been issued by different governments, including that of South Korea, to aid people in traveling safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

6) “The guidelines include the following measures: maintain safe distance from others to the maximum possible extent, wear a face covering, travel at off-peak times, and avoid crowds in public places.

7) “However, traveling using public transportation is considered risky because COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease and infected people may not exhibit any symptoms (4). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32144116

8) “Thus, the reasons for the existing anxiety is justified by the vulnerability of public transportation to COVID-19 infection (5). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26725225

9) “Sun et al. (6) proved that public transit can be a source of transmission of the infectious epidemic. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23918373

10) Furthermore, Mo et al. (7) concluded that public transit is a critical factor of infection. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33519128

11) “The emphasis on wearing a mask aids in reducing the spread of the virus (8). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20092668

12) “Existing studies proved that wearing N95 masks can block almost all mock viruses (16, 17). Hence, widespread use of the mask can effectively suppress aerosol propagation. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32232986

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497389

13) In a previous study, the median protection factor of an unauthenticated mask worn by an untrained individual is in the range of 2.4-6.5, or its mask efficiency is the range of 58 to 85% (16, 17) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497389

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32232986

14) Let’s compare 3 countries — US, UK, and S Korea — take a guess which country universally wears masks and follows public health protocols. S Korea vaccination only recently hit 75%—not much higher than UK’s 68%. #MaskUp

https://twitter.com/VincentRK/status/1456710680426520576

15) How is aerosol different from large droplets? aerosol study indicates that coronavirus is persistent and stable for many hours. Typical air exchange every 20 min to 4 hrs, depending on ventilation. #COVID19

16) Mask and airborne science compilation video

17) For thanksgiving- remember that VENTILATION is key. Both ventilation and masks needed to reduce risk indoors. But most buildings not ventilated well enough.

18) “Until we recognise that #COVID19 is airborne we are setting ourselves up for repeated failure”

19) Masks work— especially premium ones. Science definitely proves it. But derelict leaders like @BorisJohnson and @sajidjavid ignored. And endangered the healthcare system by not providing them to workers.

https://twitter.com/hughes_eilir/status/1460683759716642821