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i take this as a positive sign that the national conversation might be starting to finally move beyond fear and panic to reason and understanding. the primary

i take this as a positive sign that the national conversation might be starting to finally move beyond fear and panic to reason and understanding. the primary mechanism of transmission (droplets into the nasopharangeal area) has been known since at least february (when it started to become regular news here in the US) and probably since at least december in china when it became a known infectious agent. the better we understand the situations and environments where transmission is materially increased, the faster we devise reasonable mitigations and get back to some semblance of normalcy. it's also important to debunk false mitigations that only serve to mollify the skittish (e.g., elaborate germophobic rituals) and thereby obstruct understanding and cause other harms. in fact, some of those mitigations can increase transmission risk simply by providing a false sense of relief (e.g., constant, but inevitably incorrect, mask usage).

andybak 7y ago
> the primary mechanism of transmission [...] has been known I thought the entire point of this post was that there were multiple competing theories and little agreement or certainty? Your use of the phrase "has been known" implies a broad consensus in public health circles. I've seen very little consensus on any feature of this pandemic.
- macintux 7y ago
  The fog of war seems to be relenting, but as a casual observer it's been maddening to see so much conflicting information and the corresponding cherry-picking of information to assert that this is overblown.
- clairity 7y ago
  no, the point of the article was that while there are competing theories of transmission, the centrality of the ballistic transmission mechanism has been known for a while (from prior coronavirus studies) and has been relatively undisputed as the primary transmission vector. to wit (from the article), > "When do COVID-19 SSEs happen? Based on the list I’ve assembled, the short answer is: Wherever and whenever people are up in each other’s faces, laughing, shouting, cheering, sobbing, singing, greeting, and praying. You don’t have to be a 19th-century German bacteriologist or MIT expert in mucosalivary ballistics to understand what this tells us about the most likely mode of transmission."

andybak 7y ago

> the primary mechanism of transmission [...] has been known I thought the entire point of this post was that there were multiple competing theories and little agreement or certainty? Your use of the phrase "has been known" implies a broad consensus in public health circles. I've seen very little consensus on any feature of this pandemic.

macintux 7y ago
The fog of war seems to be relenting, but as a casual observer it's been maddening to see so much conflicting information and the corresponding cherry-picking of information to assert that this is overblown.
clairity 7y ago
no, the point of the article was that while there are competing theories of transmission, the centrality of the ballistic transmission mechanism has been known for a while (from prior coronavirus studies) and has been relatively undisputed as the primary transmission vector. to wit (from the article), > "When do COVID-19 SSEs happen? Based on the list I’ve assembled, the short answer is: Wherever and whenever people are up in each other’s faces, laughing, shouting, cheering, sobbing, singing, greeting, and praying. You don’t have to be a 19th-century German bacteriologist or MIT expert in mucosalivary ballistics to understand what this tells us about the most likely mode of transmission."