That's because people are desperate for effective mitigation measures, and you cannot get there without explaining and centering airborne transmission. Countries with surges are *still* not distinguishing indoor/outdoor, explaining mask fit/filter etc. This isn't quibbling.https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1385241631306260490 …
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This isn't a jargon fight. The crucial problem is the *mechanism* needs explaining in order to arrive at the right mitigations and for those to make sense. "It occurs mostly at close contact" doesn't get us there, especially without explaining the correct underlying mechanism.
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Replying to @zeynep
Folks who were aerosol skeptics have more recently said things like "we're not denying aerosol transmission happens, we just don't know if it's the dominant mode". Haziness about mechanism, lost in the great fog of uncertainty, makes "outside better than inside" seem arbitrary
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Replying to @iskander
Exactly. Saying "sure it happens some" (even that used to be denied but we moved on given overwhelming evidence) isn't enough because it doesn't lead to correct mitigations or understanding! Anyone who doesn't think it's dominant needs to present their theory of the epi record.
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Replying to @zeynep
I think their theory is roughly "mostly non-floating droplets, maybe some weird exceptions". It seems strongly influenced by effectiveness of droplet precautions in US hospitals to prevent infection among HCWs. But, "droplet precautions" in a well ventilated space... (you know)
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The "weird exceptions" bin + epi uncertainty somehow swallow all counter-examples. Sure, it seems like airflow mediated who got infected in a super-spreading event, but how do you *really* know? (video + genomic sequencing seems to overcome this skepticism)
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Yeah. One can epicycle through individual examples, but I don't see how one can explain the totality of the observed record and empirical studies with the "aerosols are mostly long-range and close-contact could be mostly droplets." I'm open to the case if someone wants to try.
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