My God, how temporarily other people forget. On Monday, with Covid-19 cases rising in the United States, the hashtag #COVIDisAirborne was all the rage on Twitter. And many tweets from the hashtag tried to remind other people that, yes, the Covid-19 coronavirus is still flying capable.
Why is such a reminder necessary? After all, it’s not that the virus has small wings and lost them because red Bull stopped drinking. In the spring of 2020, clinical evidence began to show that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) can float in the air. for a while and over six feet in the form of tiny breathing droplets, as I covered for Forbes in May 2020. This temporarily led to demands on face masks and led to improved ventilation and air filtration in indoor areas. While a number of new variants have since given the impression, subsequent editions of the virus have not lost this airborne biological property. In fact, the BA. 4 and BA. 5 Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 that are spreading lately are much more transmissible than the original edition of the virus and are fueling Covid-19 spikes in the United States, as I recently reported for Forbes.
So doesn’t that make #COVIDisAirborne seem #CheeseIsTollDelicious or #ToiletPaperIsStillNeeded?Why did John Snow’s assignment feel the need to use hashtag and green to spread the word about what SARS-CoV-2 can still do?
As you can see, the video encouraged him to “wear a respirator every time you share air” with others and “not one of those leaky surgical masks. “Use a suitable one, rated at least as N95 or FFP2. This will prevent you from getting sick. He also suggested that you “open the windows, clear the virus, and get new air in,” which means expanding ventilation inside. This is not new advice. Again, the virus’ ability to spread through the air has not been replaced since 2020.
What it has replaced are the other people and the politicians and those who are both. Since spring 2021, many face mask needs have gradually replaced blinds and probably obsolete cuffs. Today, many workplaces, schools, airlines, trains, and other businesses no longer require the use of face masks. And when something is needed, guess what happens?
Jayne Morgan, M. D. , Clinical Director of the Covid Task Force at Piedmont Healthcare Corporation in Atlanta, GA, used the hashtag #COVIDisAirborne to point out that almost no one wore a mask on her recent flight to Los Angeles:
He also tweeted, “Have the courage to be the only one,” with “one” possibly meaning dressed in a face mask. Yes, he used the word “courage” to do what many public fitness experts propose you do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Mask guidance webpage still states, “Wear a mask when there is a lot of COVID in your community. Wear a mask in public places where there are a lot of people.
The CDC’s online page also states that “you can wear a mask in public places like grocery stores and movie theaters at any time. You can wear a mask in public outdoor places like parks at any time,” which is interesting. he regularly sees public fitness recommendations that say something like “you can wear a seat belt when you drive a car at any time” or “you can use a condom when you have sex with someone you just met on Tinder. “So maybe it reflects the desire to have a “courage” problem, that other people feel social tension not to wear face masks.
Why do many public fitness experts still show up dressed in face masks in enclosed public spaces?Umm, as the following tweet with the hashtag #COVIDisAirborne pointed out, no one can “cancel” the Covid-19 pandemic:
Yes, other people don’t say things like, “Stop all this by using an umbrella when you’re outside. It reminds us that it’s raining. “
Others have used #COVIDisAirborne to call for more measures for indoor air quality, as poor ventilation remains a major challenge in many places. For example, here’s what Kimberly A. Prather, PhD, professor emerita at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, tweeted:
It seems that the scientists “screaming from the rooftops”, which, by the way, tend to be much more ventilated than many stalls inside, did not work. minutes ago?” And the following tweet warned that surprise, surprise, cash plays a role:
So a big question is whether face mask needs will return now that another covid-19 surge is occurring in many parts of the United States. This time, the even more transmissible subvariants BA. 4 and BA. 5 Omicron feed the shoots. In fact, those new variants look different enough to escape any immune protection that has opposed vaccination or the past Covid-19, as I recently described for Forbes. Even more transmissible? Able to evade your immune cover?Still in flight? It seems like a task for face mask and increased indoor ventilation.
Well, several municipalities have considered reinstating face mask requirements. For example, a July 8 press release from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced that on that day the county had reached the highest levels of inpatients with COVID-positive (1,021) and daily deaths (18) since March 30 and February 26, respectively. He also warned that the degrees of transmission of the Covid-19 coronavirus tended to be maximum and that if the county entered and remained at maximum degrees of transmission for two consecutive weeks, “Universal indoor masking, consistent with the CDC, would be implemented in the county. “However, restoring mask use after an outbreak can be like putting on a condom after you’ve had sex with this Tinder date several times. The most productive time to avoid a Covid-19 outbreak is, you know, before the outbreak.
While #COVIDisAirborne has been trending on Twitter recently, the concept of “the Covid-19 coronavirus can be airborne” deserves to be much more than a trend. It’s not like low-waisted jeans, popular for a while before disappearing when something more attractive. This is something that has already been established through clinical studies. People might think that the virus can spread through the air. But SARS-CoV-2 won’t.