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Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. >In an open letter published today (July 6 2020), 239 scie

Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. >In an open letter published today (July 6 2020), 239 scientists from 32 countries urge the World Health Organization and other bodies to address the potential for airborne transmission of the coronavirus. The authors write that a growing body of evidence suggests “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the virus spreads indoors through tiny aerosols—a finding that should be reflected in the WHO’s recommendations. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/scientists-urge-consideration-of-airborne-sars-cov-2-transmission-67702 https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/scientists-urge-c... How sad that it has taken this long to reach acceptance that you need a mask capable of filtering the air you breathe.

tasha0663 5y ago
> How sad that it has taken this long to reach acceptance that you need a mask capable of filtering the air you breathe. A lot of us were lied to about masks at the beginning of this, so it's not terribly surprising.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  Unfortunately, it got politicized, at which point facts no longer matter. When we thought that Covid spread by the large droplets you spray out when you cough or sneeze, wearing a cloth mask to catch those droplets before they landed on people or surfaces that people will touch made sense.
robbrown451 5y ago
Part of it is the pre-Omicron, it took more virus to typically infect people. So the more typical masks helped a lot. Now even a tiny bit can easily infect, so aerosol (as opposed to droplets) was not nearly as big an issue.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  Regular cloth masks do not filter virus floating in the air you breathe and they never did. Here's one of the scientists from President Biden's Covid advisory council being interviewed on PBS last year: > I have had concerns that date back to april of 2020 about the concept of masking. Needless to say it's a political hot button beyond anything I've ever seen in public health, and yet at the same time i think we've all done a disservice to the public. When you actually look at face cloth coverings, those cloth pieces of hang over your face, they actually only have very limited impact in reducing the amount of virus that you inhale in or exhale out. In fact in studies that have been done show that if an individual might get infected within 15 minutes in a room, by time and concentration of the virus in the room, add a face cloth covering you only get about five more minutes of protection. I've been really disappointed with my colleagues in public health for not being more clear about what can masking does or does not do. On the other hand if you use the n95 respirators and fit them tight to your face, you can actually spend 25 hours in that same room and still be protected. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/do-masks-provide-much-protection-we-think-bglhwy/ https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/do-masks...
  - Misdicorl 5y ago
    A 33% efficacy improvement seems great to me for such a simple, easy, cheap, and accessible countermeasure.
    - GeekyBear 5y ago
      So when you send a child to school for the day, they are only going to be there five minutes? >Fitted particle-filtering masks like N95s are up to 75 times more effective at preventing infection with COVID-19 than surgical masks, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.axios.com/n95-mask-protection-covid-958039c9-07f1-45a1-81e7-b7436707fee5.html https://www.axios.com/n95-mask-protection-covid-958039c9-07f...
      - Misdicorl 5y ago
        How in the world did you get to this retort from my statement? My child is too young to go to school. If my child was school age I'd likely unenroll this semester. If that somehow were not an option I'd send with an n95. Are you satisfied?
scoot 5y ago
> Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. Several months, perhaps? The article you link to and the letter it references are both dated July 6 2020. Even now COVID-19 has only existed for a couple of years (not several). It is impossible for anyone to have spent several years (by July 2020) doing anything relating to a specific virus or the consequential disease 7 months after the first known infection.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  The evidence for finding that Covid was airborne was discussed before the letter was written. The Pacific Princess, where the virus continued to spread between passengers who were locked down in their cabins, was in January 2020, for instance.
  - scoot 5y ago
    Yes, so again, a period of several months, not several years.
vba616 5y ago
Many people still seem to think that it is transmitted on surfaces. Not instead of airborne, but additionally. And I don't mean experts or lawmakers (that I know of), I mean in my area of the US, grocery stores and gas stations (sometimes) have signs saying put a plastic bag or gloves on your hands.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  The initial advice was all based on the theory that Covid had a droplet based spread: Wear a cloth mask to catch large droplets before they spread. Stay six feet apart, because large droplets fall to the ground within that distance. Use hand sanitizer and disinfect surfaces droplets might fall on. Put up sneeze guards at registers to protect the cashiers. However, once you know the virus is fully airborne, you can focus on different things, like improving indoor ventilation in public spaces so you are constantly exchanging inside air for outside air. We have HVAC systems that will help recover the ac/heat when you do this.

tasha0663 5y ago

> How sad that it has taken this long to reach acceptance that you need a mask capable of filtering the air you breathe. A lot of us were lied to about masks at the beginning of this, so it's not terribly surprising.

GeekyBear 5y ago
Unfortunately, it got politicized, at which point facts no longer matter. When we thought that Covid spread by the large droplets you spray out when you cough or sneeze, wearing a cloth mask to catch those droplets before they landed on people or surfaces that people will touch made sense.

robbrown451 5y ago

Part of it is the pre-Omicron, it took more virus to typically infect people. So the more typical masks helped a lot. Now even a tiny bit can easily infect, so aerosol (as opposed to droplets) was not nearly as big an issue.

GeekyBear 5y ago
Regular cloth masks do not filter virus floating in the air you breathe and they never did. Here's one of the scientists from President Biden's Covid advisory council being interviewed on PBS last year: > I have had concerns that date back to april of 2020 about the concept of masking. Needless to say it's a political hot button beyond anything I've ever seen in public health, and yet at the same time i think we've all done a disservice to the public. When you actually look at face cloth coverings, those cloth pieces of hang over your face, they actually only have very limited impact in reducing the amount of virus that you inhale in or exhale out. In fact in studies that have been done show that if an individual might get infected within 15 minutes in a room, by time and concentration of the virus in the room, add a face cloth covering you only get about five more minutes of protection. I've been really disappointed with my colleagues in public health for not being more clear about what can masking does or does not do. On the other hand if you use the n95 respirators and fit them tight to your face, you can actually spend 25 hours in that same room and still be protected. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/do-masks-provide-much-protection-we-think-bglhwy/ https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/do-masks...
- Misdicorl 5y ago
  A 33% efficacy improvement seems great to me for such a simple, easy, cheap, and accessible countermeasure.
  - GeekyBear 5y ago
    So when you send a child to school for the day, they are only going to be there five minutes? >Fitted particle-filtering masks like N95s are up to 75 times more effective at preventing infection with COVID-19 than surgical masks, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.axios.com/n95-mask-protection-covid-958039c9-07f1-45a1-81e7-b7436707fee5.html https://www.axios.com/n95-mask-protection-covid-958039c9-07f...
    - Misdicorl 5y ago
      How in the world did you get to this retort from my statement? My child is too young to go to school. If my child was school age I'd likely unenroll this semester. If that somehow were not an option I'd send with an n95. Are you satisfied?

scoot 5y ago

> Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. Several months, perhaps? The article you link to and the letter it references are both dated July 6 2020. Even now COVID-19 has only existed for a couple of years (not several). It is impossible for anyone to have spent several years (by July 2020) doing anything relating to a specific virus or the consequential disease 7 months after the first known infection.

GeekyBear 5y ago
The evidence for finding that Covid was airborne was discussed before the letter was written. The Pacific Princess, where the virus continued to spread between passengers who were locked down in their cabins, was in January 2020, for instance.
- scoot 5y ago
  Yes, so again, a period of several months, not several years.

vba616 5y ago

Many people still seem to think that it is transmitted on surfaces. Not instead of airborne, but additionally. And I don't mean experts or lawmakers (that I know of), I mean in my area of the US, grocery stores and gas stations (sometimes) have signs saying put a plastic bag or gloves on your hands.

GeekyBear 5y ago
The initial advice was all based on the theory that Covid had a droplet based spread: Wear a cloth mask to catch large droplets before they spread. Stay six feet apart, because large droplets fall to the ground within that distance. Use hand sanitizer and disinfect surfaces droplets might fall on. Put up sneeze guards at registers to protect the cashiers. However, once you know the virus is fully airborne, you can focus on different things, like improving indoor ventilation in public spaces so you are constantly exchanging inside air for outside air. We have HVAC systems that will help recover the ac/heat when you do this.