COVID-19: Comic and video explanation of transmission
Multiple years into the pandemic and many still don't understand how the airborne transmission of respiratory viruses like COVID-19 work. 🧵1/
The Aerosol Science Research Center in Taiwan has put together an explainer comic and video for people to more easily understand ( aerosol.nsysu.edu.tw/en/scopes/108 ). 2/
The youtube video can be found here ( ). 3/
Hopefully this will help people understand that being in a closed meeting room of people for multiple hours with people spaced exactly 2m apart is not sufficient to prevent transmission from a virus that travels in the air. 4/
With poor ventilation those virosols (virus-laden aerosols) can remain in the air for hours so you might even get infected by someone who was in the previous meeting and is not even there any more. 5/
Surface cleaning does *not* stop airborne transmission and physical barriers like plexiglass can actually disrupt air flow and trap higher concentrations of aerosols making things worse. 6/
How do you reduce the chance of airborne transmission?
- improve ventilation & air filtration
- wear mask with proper fit (N95 or better)
- avoid clustering
- keep physical distance (2m is not sufficient for aerosols)
7/
"We are exposed to massively more pollutants, toxins, and pathogens via air than food and water." so fixing and improving air quality helps with so much more than just COVID-19 (
#Variant update for #Ontario, #Canada (to Dec 10, 2024)
The KP.3.1.1 #DeFLuQE variant has finally been surpassed with XEC now in top place above 20% while the other 5 (MC.* and XEC.* descendants) remain < 7%. Graph tools by @Mike_Honey_ 🧵1/
XEC is a combination of KP.3.3 and KS.1.1 that recombined together. MC.1 is a direct descendant of KP.3.1.1 with one spike mutation at T571I. To learn more about how variant naming works, you can read this article I wrote with @paulseaman31 ( ). 2/docs.google.com/document/d/1q0…
This Sankey graph shows the proportion of variants from PCR test genomic sequencing in Ontario since October 27, 2024. You can follow the lineage backwards to see where a variant is a descendant from. 3/
This is a good example of why it is useful to understand the importance of population *rate* and not just look at raw numbers. The first graph shows raw numbers and the second graph population rate. 🧵1/ #ED #Respiratory #Virus #Population #Ottawa
Ottawa Public Health makes only the raw data available for All causes and respiratory-related emergency department visits to Ottawa hospitals by age group and week ( ). 2/open.ottawa.ca/datasets/ottaw…
If I take the data and plot all the ages together, you can at least see all of the age groups at the same time but it is just the raw numbers. 3/
This is amazing, not only a lower cost CPC for measuring mask fit and ultrafine particles in a room, but also a new probe to measure fit of a respirator without destroying it, check out the video from @OpenAeros and @masknerd to see how it works ( ). 🧵1/
@masknerd also demonstrates how you can use OpenCPC to measure how well an air cleaner is filtering particles when you insert the probe into the output vent where particles dropped to 6.4/cm^3 from the regular 700-800/cm^3 for the room. 2/
When Aaron Collins moves the probe to a couple of feet in front of the portable air cleaner, levels go back up to 785/cm^3 which is the same as the room concentration indicating this type is filtering the air but doesn't create a "clean bubble" in front of it. 3/
#Variant update for #Ontario, #Canada (to Oct 29, 2024)
The KP.3.1.1 #DeFLuQE variant is having some competition from XEC and MC.1 now. Graph tools by @Mike_Honey_ 🧵1/
XEC is a combination of KP.3.3 and KS.1.1 that recombined together. MC.1 is a direct descendant of KP.3.1.1 with one spike mutation at T571I. To learn more about how variant naming works, you can read this article I wrote with @paulseaman31 ( ). 2/docs.google.com/document/d/1q0…
This Sankey graph shows the proportion of variants from PCR test genomic sequencing in Ontario since September 15, 2024. You can follow the lineage backwards to see where a variant is a descendant from. 3/
Ceilings fans can reduce short-range viral concentrations close to the infected (54%-77%) while increasing long-range levels (5%-14%). Only recommended when # people in room is less than decision tool for various ventilation rates with not highly contagious pathogens (e.g. cold).