Getting ready to fly again. PSA: I will wear a mask the entire time in the airport & during boarding (highest risk times). Once we are at high altitude, I will assess the sounds of those around me. ACH are high so the key is to make sure those close to you are not sick. (1/3)
If I feel "safe", I will remove my mask to eat/drink but I will keep it on the rest of the trip. So far, this has worked as I have not gotten COVID-19 yet even with travel. It is all a calculated risk and each person needs to decide knowing people are traveling while sick. (2/3)
I have to say that this approach has worked for me so far. As for meals in DC, I will eat outside as much as I can but only have so much control over some of the "events". I will be carrying my CO2 monitor the entire time so if levels get high, I will leave. (3/3)
There will likely be pictures of me and others not wearing masks at certain events so I am sharing my risk assessment up front. If seeing maskless pictures upsets you, please feel free to block/mute me in advance. (4/)
I hope everyone knows that because I am choosing to attend this event doesn't mean I don't care about those who cannot get out. As you can see, I am continuing to fight and call our @WHO and others for misinfo and improper protection of everyone. This is a terrible situation.
Let's find a way to support everyone who is dealing with a wide range of challenges. I wear a mask indoors 90% of the time and only remove it when I assess risk via CO2 and proximity to open doors/windows. I continue to fight for clean indoor air for all (the ultimate solution).
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I'm just re-read @WHO's recent report. As motivation, they state up front: ".....during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the terms ‘airborne’, ‘airborne transmission’ and ‘aerosol transmission’ were used in different ways by stakeholders in different" (1/4)
"scientific disciplines, which may have contributed to misleading information and confusion about how pathogens are transmitted in human populations."
My question which has not been addressed: (2/4)
Why did it take @WHO and ~100 experts 33 pages to conclude that SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens are airborne (replaced by they "travel through the air")? This could have been clarified & stated in 1 page max. More words lead to more confusion, not less. (3/4)?
Oh @WHO-adding more confusion, not less. Why remove "aerosols" which means those particles that remain suspended in air (vs droplets that drop quickly) and can become inhaled?? My head hurts after reading this convoluted mess. (1/2)
Question for @who and those who remained to help on this report (I stepped away after seeing the unhelpful path it was going)--do you really believe "infectious respiratory particle" clarifies the main pathway to infection for COVID-19 and other respiratory particles??? (2/2).
Honestly? This feels like a massive cover-up for why @WHO did not state SARS-CoV-2 was airborne right up front which would have protected millions of people. They knew SARS-1 was airborne--why did they not apply the precautionary principle to SARS-2? (3/)
Trying to understand breakdowns in communication during the pandemic. We tried to write a publication with Saskia Popescu and Angie Rasmussen. They backed out when I refused to eliminate the word "airborne". Here are their exact words: "We believed that the goal of this" (1/)
project was to harmonize terminology across disciplines so that future communications could be clear and unified. However, we disagree that the word “airborne” should be part of this consensus nomenclature. While the word “airborne” has a broad definition (2/)
that means “borne by the air,” in reality this word has many discipline-specific connotations, & has a wide range of meanings to the general public in the context of infectious disease. Including such a vague and protean term does not unify terminology across disciplines, (3/)
Twitter was an incredible place to connect people globally to help get out the word on #COVIDIsAirborne. I met so many amazing people as a result. Great things happened based on these connections. My main goal has always been helping people understand how to....(1/10)
protect themselves when public health failed by denying airborne transmission was occurring. As I said on 6/1/20 in my interview with @DrLaPook , this is a fixable problem IF we acknowledge SARS-CoV-2 is airborne. Why not? SARS-1 was airborne. Precautionary principle? (2/)
At the heart of the medical field and public health, right? If there is any chance this virus could be airborne, we need to protect everyone (and we know how!). Yet, they didn't. This led to nearly 20M deaths and many more people whose lives have been harmed. To this day, (3/10)
This is an example of where CONTEXT should never be ignored. Note that his email to Dr. Fauci has TWO parts: 1)"Is this news" regarding a recent article on the potential for airborne? & 2) What should we be telling people about visiting the hospital if they are feeling sick? (1/)
Note that his question "What is the right message?" is in the middle of his second message (the focus of briefing the next day)--not #1. The fact is @DrLaPook was the FIRST chief medical correspondent on a major TV network to go against what public officials were saying. (2/)
He did this after he interviewed me about our @ScienceMagazine Perspective on 06/01/2020 describing the evidence supporting the fact that #COVIDIsAirborne. In fact, he went so far as to figure out how to post our full *uncut* interview on YouTube.
Email I just sent to @CDCgov director after seeing their abysmal report on masking...
Hello,
I have spent the last few years helping people understand how to protect against the airborne nature of SARS-2. The pandemic should and could have ended long ago. (1/)
Seeing CDC's latest article stating that surgical masks are as good as N95's (for an aerosol!) has made me question the motivation of CDC. We drink 2L of water per day. We filter water to remove pathogens. We breathe 70,000 L of air per day--but we do not filter it. (2/)
Why are we are OK with inhaling pathogens from the air? Disease from all respiratory viruses could be stopped IF we filter our air-particularly indoor air where pathogens build up over time like cigarette smoke. You are on the national stage and can help get this message out.(3/)