New Playbook for Covid-19 Protection Emerges After Year of Study, Missteps
By Daniela Hernandez, Sarah Toy and Caitlin McCabe
Jan. 26, 2021 12:09 pm ET
Exerpts from article:
"Scientists combined that with knowledge gained from years of experience managing occupational-health hazards in high-risk workplaces, such as factories and chemical plants, where tiny airborne pollutants can build up and cause harm. They say different types of workplaces—taking into account the types of interactions workers have—need slightly different protocols."
Secondly, researchers now know that tiny airborne particles known as aerosols play a role in the spread of Covid-19. These can linger in the air and travel beyond 6 feet.
Yet in settings like offices, restaurants or gyms, the role of the barriers is murkier, because activities like talking loudly and breathing deeply create aerosols that can waft on air currents and get around shields.
“There seems to be an assumption that particles are going to get stopped by the barriers, which is simply not true,” said Lisa Brosseau, an industrial hygienist and research consultant for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Airborne particles ferrying the virus “really distribute all over the place.”
For complete text of article:
COVID-19 Is Transmitted Through Aerosols. We Have Enough Evidence, Now It Is Time to Act
AUGUST 25, 2020
By Jose-Luis Jiminez, Professor of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Contrary to public health messaging, I, together with many other scientists, believe that a substantial share of COVID-19 cases are the result of transmission through aerosols. The evidence in favor of aerosols is stronger than that for any other pathway, and officials need to be more aggressive in expressing this reality if we want to get the pandemic under control.
“Aerosol” (sometimes referred to as “airborne”) transmission is similar to droplet transmission, except that the bits of fluid are so small that they can linger in the air for minutes to hours. To understand the scale of aerosols, the diameter of a human hair is about 80 microns, and aerosols smaller than about 50 microns can float in the air long enough to be inhaled. SARS-CoV-2 is only 0.1 microns in diameter, so there is room for plenty of viruses in aerosols.
For complete text of article: https://time.com/5883081/covid-19-transmitted-aerosols/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm-term=ideas_covid-19
Coronavirus Can Spread Through Talking
According to Dr. Harvey Fineberg, chair of of the Standing Committee on Emerging Infections Diseases with the National Academy of Sciences....
Research Shows that aerosolized droplets produced by talking or possibly by just breathing can also spread the virus.
It is possible that aerosolized coronavirus droplets can hang in the air and potentially infect someone who walks by.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/health/aerosol-coronavirus-spread-white-house-letter/index.html
Virus Found Floating in the Air
APRIL 27, 2020
At two hospitals in Wuhan, China, researchers found bits of the virus's genetic material floating in the air of hospital toilets, an indoor space housing large crowds, and rooms where medical staff take off protective gear.
- Liu, Y., Ning, Z., Chen, Y. et al. Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals. Nature (2020).
Virus Found Floating in the Air
APRIL 27, 2020
At two hospitals in Wuhan, China, researchers found bits of the virus's genetic material floating in the air of hospital toilets, an indoor space housing large crowds, and rooms where medical staff take off protective gear.
- Liu, Y., Ning, Z., Chen, Y. et al. Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals. Nature (2020).