Thread by @LazarusLong13

#MonkeyPoxIsAirborne - or at least that's the conclusion that I am left with after yet another preprint.

Office worker in the UK. In her office, everyone wears masks. She was wearing a surgical mask.

SHE HAD NO LESIONS. You see she left the office before they showed up.

So, she's wearing a surgical mask. Could have taken it off while eating lunch -but I'm thinking not.

".... following onset of a mild,
57 influenza-like illness, and took steps to reduce mixing and avoid close contact with others."

There was not a tremendous amount of virus in the office. But she was only there for one day. Wearing a surgical mask which does .provide some source control.

How much? Glad you asked!

Depends on the study, but roughly 42%

ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-…

It's true that her hands could have contaminated the environment.

But I don't think so. Hand sanitizer was available -and this was a conscientious individual. She would have been hand sanitizing like crazy since that's what the UK IPC guidance has focused on.

So, the environment wasn't strongly contaminated- or so we would think - no big deal.

The authors would disagree - and found that the head to toe cleaning of the office was warranted.

For one person. For one day. Wearing a surgical ask.

To tell the truth, I almost blew off the study. It was @harisankars1's comment that there was respiratory secretions involved that caught my attention.

Big H/t!

For my fellow aerosol study readers out there - it pays to read even the fomite studies.

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

One last thought. America? You really, really better hope that Monkeypox remains not very transmissible.

That it doesn't end up mutating into being more transmissible.

Because Monkeypox IS airborne - even in a fomite study.

Some good push-back offline, so going to add that here.

We don't actually know the efficacy of the mask, and she could have touched the mask.

Very true, but it really doesn't matter. What this is showing us is there was only one possible source for that contamination.

Because she had no lesions, it only could have been her respiratory system.

Droplets have been beaten to death by the airborne work on CoVid. Feel free to push back, and I would be happy to inundate you with studies that will keep you reading for a month.

So, it is only aerosols truly at play here. And aerosols are airborne.

Someone else observed that she could have lesions in her throat and mouth. Absolutely. All the way up and down the LRT and URT. Been shown in this same thread.

But that's just another mechanism for

aerosols embedded with Monkeypox to be produced.

Respiratory secretions/mucus/ fluid will cover the lesion, and the virii will end up the fluid.

Which then gets aerosolized via the usual shearing, etc when we talk, etc.

Only one possible source for that contamination.

Her respiratory system.