239 Experts With 1 Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne

[mfcorey1]

The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.

If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially distant settings. Health care workers may need N95 masks that filter out even the smallest respiratory droplets as they care for coronavirus patients.


Ventilation systems in schools, nursing homes, residences and businesses may need to minimize recirculating air and add powerful new filters. Ultraviolet lights may be needed to kill viral particles floating in tiny droplets indoors.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/239-experts-with-1-big-claim-the-coronavirus-is-airborne/ar-BB16l0RP?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

[LuvNewcastle]

1. If that's true, then we're all going to get it.

There's no way most people will do what it takes to protect themselves from an airborne virus. If it's true, we'd better focus on ways to ease suffering after the virus is contracted.

[Initech]

2. There's no stopping the spread.

If we think social distancing, and taking temperatures, and wearing masks and plexiglass barriers, and all the rinsing and scrubbing and disinfecting that we're doing are going to stop it, we're kidding ourselves. There's really nothing we can do at this point. Our measures that we took were too little, too late. It's going to take a near Herculean effort to stop this virus.

The sad truth is that humanity is an extremely dirty species, and this was a 21st century virus that is going to require 21st and probably 22nd century measures to stop it. Our main priority should be stopping this thing and eradicating it from the earth but there might be too much resistance to be able to do that.

[roamer65]

4. What will stop it is a national mask law and rigid enforcement of it.

The Great Clips in Missouri is a prime example of how mask wearing stops the virus from spreading

[Initech]

5. That might not even be enough.

Our biggest problem is centralized and recirculated air. As long as the virus lingers in it, no amount of masks will be able to take it down.

[Strelnikov_]

7. Yes, that was. Field experience that backs up the modeling. n/t

[roamer65]

3. Any closed in space means wear a mask.

I guess will all the covidiots, it requires telling them over and over again to drill it into their thick skulls.

[RKP5637]

9. True, but if it is truly airborne and lingers, then you can get infected via your eyes. It means

it can permeate everyplace. Face masks and face shields will not be enough.

[LisaL]

16. Wear goggles.

[RKP5637]

23. I'm wondering if it will come to that ... n/t

[LisaL]

28. I am wearing clear glasses when I go out.

With a mask, of course.

[RKP5637]

30. Yes, there certainly seems to be some mixed information on the eyes. n/t

[chowder66]

19. NPR Article about eyes

But to infect you via your eyes, the virus would have to penetrate your eyes' mucous membrane, be washed by tears behind your cheeks into your nasal cavity, and then flow from the nose into your throat. "It's a more circuitous route," says Steinemann.

Our eyes have a number of defense mechanisms that help protect against infection, like eyelids that blink to cover the eye and tears that contain immunoglobulins that fight invaders.

"You blink really easily any time even a puff of air goes near your eye," says Dr. Emily Landon, hospital epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist at University of Chicago Medicine. "So if somebody coughs or sneezes near you, you're really likely to close off your eyes. That's good. Whereas your mouth and nose don't do that."


https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/22/861299427/coronavirus-faqs-can-i-catch-it-through-the-eyes-will-googles-help

[RKP5637]

21. Interesting, thanks! n/t

[chowder66]

26. Who knows what they will say next but for now it seems to be reasonable information.

[LisaL]

27. Just put on glasses or goggles, don't count on closing your eyes quick enough.

[chowder66]

29. I wear prescription glasses anyway and stay

home for the most part.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Didn't We Already Know This?

The reason for worrying less about surfaces & more about breathing it in (masks!) was because we knew this was airborne.
Is the "new" that 239 experts all say the exact same thing?
There didn't seem to be anything novel in the article.

[Strelnikov_]

8. That was my first thought.

Pretty much the rules of engagement I have been operating under for the last few months.

[RKP5637]

10. See my response #9. If it does not drop and truly remains airborne ... in essence ... it's

like trying to protect from an infectious gas. Somehow, the eyes will need full shielding too.

[Merlot]

11. Unless you're outdoors. Most specialists are also saying it dissipates in open air.

Also, there is viral load to consider. So I don't think it's like an infectious gas.

Many people I know have gone to the grocery store multiple times while wearing masks and have not caught it.

[RKP5637]

12. I hope your last sentence holds 100%. That's what I've been doing too. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

14. The Article Still References...

...tiny droplets.
Did I miss where they've proved the virus itself is supportable as a floater?

[RKP5637]

22. It will be interesting to see what the article says next week. It seems much of it is still up

for debate as progress/progression continues ...

[ProfessorGAC]

24. I Still Think It's Parsing...

...the definition of airborne.
Viruses encapsulated in microscopic droplets are still dangerous, infectious and airborne.
Exactly how something remains airborne is a difference in mechanism. The difference is only in the method.
A difference in the method of remaining airborne, but still airborne.
That's why I'm questioning why this is any kind of new information.

[RKP5637]

25. Yes, agree - A difference in the method of remaining airborne, but still airborne. n/t

[Iggo]

13. I thought to myself (as is my wont), "We ain't wearing masks cuz everybody's kissing each other."

[SheltieLover]

17. My thoughts exactly!

I wondered what I was missing. Thank you, Professor.

[Dukkha]

18. correct it's been airborne since Mrch

[JudyM]

20. The issue is that WHO isn't on the same page, so they want to influence its communication accuracy.

[LisaL]

15. That's not news. Of course it's airborne.

[cwydro]

31. I know, absolutely; that was said from the beginning. Fauci and Sanjay Gupta stressed that.

I remember the first briefings on it.

I go out with my dogs, but we're completely isolated in the woods.

I do Wal-mart pickup for groceries or do really quick in and out shopping trips at Publix. They have an employee who cleans the cart when you come in the door. Everyone masked and enforced one way aisles.

A grocery list is the best, and I follow it - up and down the aisles where I know my items are, then out, using the self service, which they clean after every customer.

Hate living this way, but until something changes, what else is there to do?