I tend to be a pragmatist. I even had this conversation with Linsey a few times. Whatever word got us to have the correct mental model/mitigations and overcome the resistance and infection control protocol confusion would be fine. (I tried to make "short-range aerosols" stick!)
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But dancing around the term isn't solving the problem or clearing the confusion either, so lose-lose. We have left healthcare workers alternatively under-protected or sometimes overly-afraid—what they think of "droplet" precautions can really help with aerosols/airborne, too.
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If it were just we thought it was droplets but it is more Y aerosols, and thus airborne, but we need to avoid airborne because [INSERT REASON], it might have worked. The problem is we also misunderstood the mechanisms of droplets and aerosols, so more than a terminology problem.
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So avoiding the word has landed us in a situation that dampens the benefits of our better understanding of aerosol transmission, but it doesn't reassure healthcare workers because without the updated understanding, they think airborne necessarily implies measles-like diseases.
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As long as people are not confusing airborne and aerosol, I'm happy.
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ningbo 2: this time it's personnel
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One thing I’ve been wondering is whether we should use a spectrum from 1-10 in describing just how “airborne” a virus is. I.e., based on how long it stays infectious in aerosols, how likely it is to transmit outside, etc.
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Not a good idea in my view.
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This has also complicated messaging from public health authorities to the public. CDC and WHO communications/recommendations rested on fine technical distinctions and failed to clearly communicate what the public needed to do. This alienates nonspecialists.
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