Useful thread from @linseymarr on the ongoing confusion around the term "airborne." I tried alternatives and arrived at the same place: we should use the term because it's the clearest one we have, and also use the opportunity to update its hospital/infection control definitions.https://twitter.com/linseymarr/status/1399761760983334912 …
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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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