Droplet Versus Airborne
Our knowledge about the Virus is surprisingly limited. Consequently our responses are not well founded. They may be sensible, but sensible is not scientific.
There are at least two ways to catch the coronavirus: By coming in close contact with infected individuals and touching contaminated objects and surfaces. In both cases, the root of the transmission is usually a cough or a sneeze. This is from droplets, mucus, and saliva of 5-10 micrometers diameter released by the infected person. The droplets are subject to gravity and fall, with the virus, to surfaces, clothing, and the floor. So, proximity is a logical factor in spreading the disease as are surfaces and clothes in the proximity of the infected person.
Now, is the virus airborne? That definition is different. Airborne spread occurs when the droplets evaporate before they fall, leaving a live virus with infective potential floating in space. So an infected person could enter an empty room and leave it infective. Those viruses can float for 1/2 hour.
WHO reports: “In an analysis of 75,465 COVID-19 cases in China, airborne transmission was not reported.”
But we are facing a resurfacing of an old problem in science: Naked politics. Can the Chinese researchers be believed? Can WHO be believed? And what can we make of the lion-hyena relationship in Washington between the government and the formerly esteemed Press?
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