The virus is NOT airborne - WHO

[TheReelSlimShady]

So the WHO have officially stated that the virus is NOT airborne as has been stated many times :

twitter.com/WHO/status/1243972193169616898

Their recommendation is to keep 1 metre apart , not 2 metres as many countries have been using (including in the UK).

Does this change anything? I guess it may calm the anxiety of picking up the virus when out and about doing exercise if someone gets a bit too close, or in the supermarket.

However, it is a pastime and will be seen by others who will then copy it

No. It will will be endlessly curtain-twitched at and condemned by people who believe that only they are Special and Clever enough to not copy it.

Because the rest of us, who are - obvs - fucking stupid, unlike the Few Who Truly Understand will copy anything anyone does, every time. Just 'cos we are stupid.

On the other hand, the Pastime of spreading shite, made-up Rulez on the internet is allowed during epidemics. Odd that.

Every infected person infects 2.8-3 others when they go out.

Good grief.

I’m no scientist. But I work in a hospital.

If this virus is not airborne please explain how patients who have been in patients for 60+ days are now testing positive.

Gwen
If you clean every possible microbe of it off your hands you don't. However, most of us will not do that.

www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

Current WHO guidance on masks.

If this virus is not airborne please explain how patients who have been in patients for 60+ days are now testing positive.

Asymptomatic health workers? We really need to test.?

If this virus is not airborne please explain how patients who have been in patients for 60+ days are now testing positive.

The health care professionals that are interacting with them.

I think there is a misunderstanding about what 'airborne' means in this context.
I think it means it is not floating around in the air like spores blowing around. However, it is propelled in the saliva of a human being when that is expelled into the air through a cough, sneeze or being sprayed from their mouth in speech.
It will also be caught in hospitals by touch- of objects, clothing, surfaces, people.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=F1JEbx9NY2I

That’s puzzling. My belief was that as a virus is so incredibly tiny & light that it’s easily propelled and lingers.

When we cough,sneeze,talk - we are propelling droplets and smaller particles the droplets fall quickly, but the aerolised particles travel further and linger in the air and that’s easily inhaled deep into your lungs because of the microscopic size of the particles.

What I saw on this video is what I thought

So how can they say it’s not airborne?!

WHO are not known for their non political viewpoints. Nor their accuracy. I mean, their statement that it’s not transmissible human to human wasn’t their finest hour.

I'm hoping the cases we are seeing now are the ones that were passed on pre lockdown. It can incubate for 14 days so that would make sense. Imagine a crowded pub or night club or concert. Loads of them would be infected and then go out and pass it on to others who then pass it on. Hopefully in a few weeks we will see a reduction in cases.

Except the country wasn't in lockdown 2 weeks ago. Last weekend there were millions of people all over the place shopping, walking, in parks, etc. All those pubs doing pre-lockdown specials.
And even now the rules are not being respected.
There is no way this is the peak.

PHE are a lot more strict than WHO. I know who I’m listening to.

*LuluJakey1-yes I know, but people aren't going out and sneezing and coughing are they now surely? I manage to go to the shops (once a week!) without once needing to cough or sneeze, and I'm sure anyone is terrified to cough or sneeze in public nowadays so if they suspect they have CV or even think they might have to sneeze or cough I can't imagine them going out. I suppose if they were doing this 2-3 weeks ago then I can understand it but even then we were very wary of not going out if showing any symptoms. And if you are asymptomatic that's coughing/sneezing out anyway as you wouldn't be coughing since you have no symptoms.

I don't get the touching thing, maybe it's because I've always been super careful of washing my hands as I have OCD. Before all this anything that goes in my bedroom is washed (like hand creams, hair spray etc.) because that's my "clean zone" where I know everything is clean. All other stuff in the rest of the house, I wash my hands after touching EVERYTIME. Yes, I wash my hands after touching the remote control, kettle etc. because other people have touched it and I can't trust their hygiene-this is all pre-Corona. Washing my hands after coming inside the house always as well. People have often thought I'm a freak though, my OCD only really manifests itself with the washing hands and I do wash them far too much (well not now, nothing is far too much now but beforehand I would have been seen as having a "problem") I suppose yeh considering most people aren't like me and used to think I washed my hands far too excessively then I can understand it more. It's just what I've always been like, not sure why as my mum is the opposite and it drives me mad! She is getting better now though thank god. I used to work in a shop and that didn't bother me because I knew the skin was a barrier, made sure not to touch my face (near eyes/mouth) and knew I'd wash my hands as soon as I got home anyway.

Interesting comment from a PP about pets picking it up from the ground on their paws. I read something the other day advising people to remove shoes at the front door as it could be transmitted on the soles of shoes. Droplets fall on ground inside and out. People spit on the ground. Not sure how long it survives on concrete?

Do lots of people spit in Spain and Italy I wonder? I know a lot of men do in some cultures, DH’s for one! Is taking shoes off at home a cultural thing for them. I suppose pets will jump up on sofas. You pick things up off the floor.

We’re a shoeless house anyway and Dcat knows she’s only allowed on her bed and isn’t allowed upstairs at all. Best I start washing her paws when she comes in?

That same Twitter link says that WHO also said this

So hardly reliable

You will notice the word “preliminary” there Ella.

Show me the evidence t say that the new information isn't preliminary

This is good news. Hopefully we will be allowed to carry on with our outdoors exercise then.

Smokers often spit.

CoronalsShit in other countries they started advising a while back removal of shoes once back home (some even disinfect them).
I have not seen any information from a credible source to suggest the virus can spread from the ground. At this stage, for some, it is a precaution.
I am particularly interested in the situation with pets but again, so far, there is no clear evidence to suggest they carry the virus on their feet (or fur or nose or mouth).
The consensus is that the virus drops on the ground so it is possible it can be picked up by something at some point. The ground isn’t as even as a door handle and the virus appears to only use human skin as a vehicle to move from surface to surface or surface to face.

Removal of shoes on entering the home seems to be more or less compulsory in Japan. Wouldn't be surprised if that is a factor in their low trsnsmission rates.

Droplets can travel in the air for a long distance.

Droplets from coughing, sneezing, spitting when you talk!

That's different to being airborne. Airborne is talking about seeing that swirling dust in the windows through the sunshine, and that's different.

You know how toilet flume can contaminate your toothbrush? It can't in a big bathroom if you're toothbrush is far enough away. Like droplets. Like people spitting when they talk or coughing and sneezing.

Although it's technically carried through the air a certain distance, it's not actually airborne.

Droplets are like throwing a ball as far as you can (it can't go too far) and airborne is a drone that can take off, swirl around, go much further and stay up longer.

So the WHO might be saying not airborne but it's clear it can travel a distance through droplets and that's why we need to stay away from each other until they devise a toilet seat to put over people instead.

”there is limited evidence of human to human transmission.”

That was a statement of fact at that time

Just as when they said it wasn’t a pandemic at that time

They didn’t say “it will not transmit human to human” nor “it won’t be a pandemic. Do people really not understand how science works or do they need every scientist to caveat with “this is what we know right now but we are continually monitoring the situation and learning new stuff all the time so be prepared for things to change”

It’s like saying that the NHS was lying yesterday when they told us the number of infections because today there are more.

If people have it on their hands, they then can easily pass it from surface to surface - even if they have had it.

If you pick it up from a surface and you’ve had it, you won’t get it again. The more people who have had it, the fewer people who catch it from touching a surface. That’s how herd immunity works. It really isn’t difficult.

If this virus is not airborne please explain how patients who have been in patients for 60+ days are now testing positive.

I've been wondering about this for weeks since the early cases of hospital inpatients confirming positive hit the news. If this isn't airborne then there can be no explanation other than covid19 being transmitted to them by the HCP's treating them or friends/family visiting.

I trust who more than our pm etc. They were telling us to distance etc and BJ ignored it.
But - who were wrong about the flights. All flights from china should have been cancelled as should ones from the whole of italy.
As should all out of any infected country with tourists on.
Uk could have largely stayed out of this if the ones back from italy had been rounded up into quarantine. Then no flights from Italy. Then we could have actually sent help to other countries and tried to manufacture stuff for them here and send other things.
Im unsure about distances but am still allowing dc in the garden though it adjoins the pavement with a hedge.
You are obviously more likely to get it in crowded shops and workplaces in an 'airborne' way and a surface way. Because it is not being washed off by rain of blown away by wind.

Maybe the way forward is rubber? Gloves for all with bleach buckets outside shops?

Yes there was a thread saying in spain they had to clean the dog paws!

I think naturally men's testosterone obviously makes them more risk taking.
More men will likely have lung damage from work related eg asbestos etc.
Are more men overweight (assuming society pressure on women to be thin).
More women are regularly exposed to kids germs.
More men exercise and there have been a football coach young man and a marathon runner who was ill too. As in if you push yourself too hard lower immune system.

Maybe more women take multivitamins??

Would be interesting to see any size/height differences. Mens body having to work harder.

However they have said type A blood type might get it worse. Looking there are higher rates of A in EU to china. We have some O. I think (could be wrong?) African descent have some B maybe asian too.
So if they can work out why A get it worse. Or even the ratio they could predict how much harder they need to do lockdowns by population.