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Orla Hegarty Profile picture
Orla Hegarty
@Orla_Hegarty
Architect Asst Professor @UCDDublin @UCDArch FRIAI RIBA ARB opinions my own #Housing #Architecture #Construction #CovidIsAirborne Orla-Hegarty@spéirghorm
3 subscribers
Feb 19 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
🇮🇪 Covid Inquiry- my comments didn’t all make it into @Independent_ie today 🧵 1/

“Over 9,600 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland, including one hundred & forty one in the weeks since Christmas…
independent.ie/irish-news/pub… ..involving 31 residents. The pandemic is not over. An estimated 10% of those infected suffer long-term effects, & this burden of illness continues to grow.

Therefore, it is likely too soon to evaluate much of Ireland’s response. Decision-making is in the same hands… 2/
Oct 7, 2023 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
“Sick of your kids being sick? Clean air in schools may be the answer”

Co-written with @j_corey02 in @irishexaminer today

🧵of links to research mentioned & more information for parents & teachers #Schools #EdChat #EdChatIE 1/ (from 2021): “growing body of research on COVID-19 provides abundant evidence for the predominance of airborne transmission. This route dominates under certain environmental conditions, particularly indoor environments that are poorly ventilated” 2/ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Sep 21, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
#Schools latest research for benefits of ventilation & filtration in classrooms 1/

🇨🇭“Classrooms with higher CO2 levels (poor ventilation) experienced more than 60% higher chance of Covid-19 outbreaks”

Houssein Gorji #WHOIndoorAir (vid @mdc_martinus) 🇬🇧 HEPA air filtration in classrooms reduced children’s absences by 20%
@CathNoakes at #WHOIndoorAir 2/
Feb 12, 2022 • 24 tweets • 13 min read
[Thread] a short story about pandemic misinformation & biased reporting

On 1 April 2021 I was contacted by a newspaper journalist.. 1/ Image ..the journalist attached the reply received from HSPC (who collect Covid data)

It DID NOT say 1 in 1,000 cases

It gave very limited data about *42 outbreaks* investigated by HSE

It reads as someone being helpful guessing at what might be outdoors (construction, sport etc) 2/ Image
Feb 10, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
New 3-bedroom houses*:

Maynooth €463,000

Edenderry €239,000 (35km away)

Portlaoise €245,000 (70km)

Kildare €275,000 (35km)

Tullamore €279,000 (70km)

Ballitore €280,000 (50km)

Athy €295,000 (55km)

Navan €310,000 (40km)

*same regulations, standards, tax etc related:
Jan 10, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
#Covid19 Schools, what to do?

No two schools are same & conditions vary from room to room & from hour time hour
Statistically there’s an infectious child in EVERY class now, so a classroom has same risk as an isolation ward in a hospital. This is a very high risk to manage 1/ 🚦 CO2 (carbon dioxide) monitors are in schools to measure exhaled air. (They don’t measure virus)

..the more people breathing, the more CO2 build up

.. the more exhaled air, the more chance of inhaling virus particles

So more clean air & fewer people reduces the risks 2/
Dec 21, 2021 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
(not an epidemiologist) #Covid19
Ireland’s over-optimism about Omicron

All ‘hopes’ would have to line up (& many are questionable)

Hope #1 -that high cases won’t translate into high hospitalisations/ICU/deaths

Indications are Omicron is not milder & that people will get sick Hope #2 -that Rt (effective reproductive rate) is between 2 & 4

Indications from elsewhere are higher (here Ontario,Canada)
Dec 18, 2021 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Pubs, restaurants & #Covid19: How the virus spreads inside (pre Omicron) 1/ thetimes.co.uk/article/ventil… 2/
Dec 16, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
🧵 #Covid19 Lots of questions about #schools, so…

#1 VENTILATION is very important, we need oxygen to function. Even before Covid, stuffy classrooms meant sleepy children, poor learning & more illness. DO NOT seal up rooms

#2 FILTRATION is another layer of protection & ... .. & may mean that a higher reading on a CO2 monitor is ok

CO2 monitors measure ventilation, not filtration

When a room has filtration it may still have stale stuffy air ..but it’s stale stuffy air that’s had virus removed by a filter (as happens on aircraft)

Here’s a guide:
Dec 7, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Public health #architecture
Ventilation required for ‘certain classes of inmates’:

Soldiers & healthy paupers: 600 cubic feet (17m3 ≈ 7m2 floor area)

Lying-in women (maternity) & the ‘offensively’ sick: 1,200 cubic feet (34m3 ≈ 14m2 floor area)

(source: Healthy Houses, 1876) & it gets better

..the book was written by William Eassie, “late assistant engineer to Renkioi Hospital during the Crimean War”
Dec 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
😷 Can you turn your surgical mask into a well-fitting mask? YES with a « mask brace » & free template to make one (see elastic band hack in next tweet) 😷 Mask hack for a good fit using elastic bands
Nov 13, 2021 • 12 tweets • 7 min read
In Ireland half of the people who died from #Covid19 were infected in fewer than 400 buildings

Ireland has >2,500,000 buildings

Risk is about buildings, not behaviour

Spread is about clusters, not contacts

Control is about eliminating the hot spots (pic: @mdc_martinus ) source: data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/…
Nov 11, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
😷 Good masking policies protect HCWs, hospital staff, patients & visitors

😷 FFP (respirator) masks protect from inhaling airborne virus

😷 2m distancing is ~not~ a protection from airborne virus spread

😷 Infected air can linger in empty rooms, lifts, toilets & break rooms why does using FFP (respirator) masks really matter?

“surgical masks do not protect the wearer from inhaling smaller airborne particles”

most #Covid19 transmission is from these smaller particles that are light enough to float, & linger for hours indoors

@NIOSH /@CDCgov Image
Oct 31, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
“#Covid19 is not harmful to children”-says @CcoHse on @RTERadio1

100 children have died in UK

NHS England are opening 15 ~paediatric~ #LongCovid clinics

International research confirms schools without precautions drive spread

CDC warn of severe disease risk in young children 1 in 4 schools (in Ireland) had a #Covid19 outbreak between Feb & May this year (HPSC)

Schools in Ireland are not following public health advice of ECDC, WHO & CDC

Just this week one school had an outbreak of 40+ cases independent.ie/irish-news/hea…
Oct 30, 2021 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
#Covid19 Horrified by this

“optimist in me hopes that when we have had widespread infection in 5-12 year olds —which has already happened— then there aren’t any more.. they’ll have partial immunity for 6-8 weeks.. 1/ @SamuelMcConkey1 @SarahAMcInerney “..natural infection doesn’t protect you for very long”

Children are not protected from disease by infecting them ~with the disease~

So, he’s not talking about protecting children..he’s talking about an unethical & unsafe experiment to ~infect children~ for benefit of adults 2/
Oct 24, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
So Dr @ClionaNi was right..
“I would probably bet that most kids in Ireland under 12 will get Covid before the spring, the way we are going on now” (12 Sept)

Urgent action is needed to protect children & to stop spread in schools ‘Most children under the age of 12 in Ireland will contract Covid-19 by early 2022, unless schools are made safer – infectious disease specialist’ independent.ie/irish-news/hea…
Oct 23, 2021 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
Re: #Covid19 #Nightclubs #Coppers

Safer spaces should be re-purposed so that people can socialise at low risk. Crowding into basements & rooms with low ceilings is unnecessary & unsafe

Risk of super-spread is not about people, it’s about *places* 1/ Here’s a design idea from more than a year ago 2/
Oct 22, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
(rough maths) 100m long queue, say 200+ people.. & Ireland had ≈25,000 new cases in last 14 days (actual infection likely 3x that).. so say 1.5% of population is currently infectious with #Covid19… the odds are 3+ people in this queue are infectious tonight 1/ … ONE PERSON who may be fully vaccinated & have no symptoms.. breaths out 72,000 copies of the virus in one hour… & vaccines give 50-90% protection from infection. Do the maths
Oct 22, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When people “object” to #housing.. look closely at the housing..
*deregulated space standards
*deregulated fire safety
*deregulated building heights
*deregulated ventilation & daylight
*deregulated amenities Image relying on smoke seals on *one* door to stop a kitchen fire filling the corridor with smoke ..& compromising the escape of up to 10 families.. & the building is not designed for ladder rescue, if the corridor isn’t safe… Image
Oct 16, 2021 • 10 tweets • 8 min read
🇮🇪HSE #Covid19 information is unscientific & unsafe. People are at risk of infection due to misleading, contradictory & out-of-date advice 1/

✅Covid19 is MOSTLY spread by aerosols from breathing & talking, NOT droplets from coughs & sneezes

✅Aerosols linger & spread >2m ✅ ‘social distancing’ of 2m is NOT a protection indoors, everyone breaths the same air

✅ virus can fill rooms & linger for hours in EMPTY rooms/lifts/vehicles

✅ risk from touching surfaces/hands/eyes is LOW

✅ respiratory virus are almost always INHALED by infected air 2/
Oct 15, 2021 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
COVID IS NOT SPREAD ON HANDS*

Lungs have the surface area of tennis court & virus is inhaled in infected air

Telling people to wash hands to prevent a respiratory pandemic is negligence

*CDC: 1 in 10,000 risk from a touch, so possible but very unlikely People can be infected an EMPTY ROOM