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)
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"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 (
Hospitalizations due to COVID increased from 176 to 241 in the last update. Influenza hospitalizations have start dropping from the peak of 1,400 to 1,095 with RSV increasing from 121 to 156. 🧵1/
Looking back over the past few years, new hospitalizations for RSV have remained pretty stable the last two years around 2,500 and a decrease from 2023, while COVID has been significantly dropping each year, 26,571 in 2023 to 15,739 in 2024 to 6,788 in 2025. 2/
Influenza has been doing the opposite, increasing significantly each year from 3,486, to 4,380 in 2024, to 12,818 in 2025. 3/
How does various mask fit compare to filter the air and protect you or others?
Most masks, even baggy blue procedure masks use filtering material that can filter 95%+ of particles that pass through it, but the key is "pass through it". 🧵1/
Protection mostly depends on how well that mask fits your specific face and one that does not fit well, much of the air you breathe will go around the filter material and filter 0% of those particles. 2/
There has been a chart going around recently that talks about "Time it takes to transmit an infectious dose of COVID-19" which is misleading if you don't understand all of the details of how that table was made and what each component means. 3/
The XFG.* "Stratus" family is accounting for 83% while the next closest variant family NB.1.8.1.* "Nimbus" is 12.8% of sequenced genomes from COVID tests. 🧵1/
Looking at specific variants, XFG.3 has dropped considerably and its descendent XFG.3.15 now takes first place at 6.2%, followed by XFG.3 at 5.2% and XFG.2 at 4.5%. 2/
It looks like PY.1.1.1 was trying to make a run for the top in mid-September but has decreased significantly. PY.1.1.1 is a descendant of LF.7 while the XFG variant is a recombination of LF.7 and LP.8.1.2 so they would share some mutations in common. 3/
*** Ontario Variant Update (to: Aug. 16, 2025) ***
Ontario COVID sequence updates have been more frequent over the past month with the XFG.* "Stratus" family of variants now at 74% of sequences, NB.1.8.1.* "Nimbus" at 22% and LP.8.1.* down to 3%. #Variants #XFG #Stratus 🧵1/
Looking at specific variants as of mid August, XFG.5.1 is most prevalent at 13%, NB.1.8.1 in second at 10%, XFG.2 in third at 8.6% and XFG.3 in fourth at 7.4%. 2/
LP.8.1 is what this fall's Japan Novavax vaccine and the mRNA vaccines are designed for which is now almost gone and typical of how these things work with vaccine manufacturing timing while Novavax is providing the previous year's JN.1 vaccine formula for the USA again. 3/
Understanding Canadian Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) & Wildfire Smoke
Wildfire smoke consists of toxic gases and particulate matter (PM) when breathed in gets into our lungs, bloodstream, and even our brain. 🧵1/
#iaq #wildfire #smoke #AQI #AQHI #Canada
When smoke stays in the air for prolonged periods of time, the UV radiation from the sun interacts with all the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to form even more toxic gases ( ). 3/theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weathe…
Pollution levels in Ottawa are very high from wildfire smoke. The particulate matter (PM)2.5 levels surpassed 140 ug/m^3 Thursday evening and are still above 130 on my VisiblAir Model X outdoor sensor ( ). 🧵1/ #iaq #wildfire #smoke visiblair.com
The EPA maps fine particulate pollution to their Air Quality Index where anything above 125.5 PM is Very Unhealthy which is a "Health alert: The risk of health effects is increased for everyone" ( ). 2/airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/
EPA Categories:
* Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (Orange) = 35.5-55.4 PM ug/m^3
* Unhealthy for everyone (Red) = 55.5 to 125.4 PM ug/m^3
* Very Unhealthy (Purple) = 125.5 to 225.4 PM ug/m^3
* Hazardous (Brown) = 225.5+ PM ug/m^3
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