Aerosol transmission - what's the weight of evidence?

[RoseAndRose]

I saw an interesting post by @WitchWanderer on another thread, and have seen tweets about this (yes very reliable I know!) from scientists who usually seem mainstream and well respected.

I was wondering if there was anyone around who could summarise the existing evidence - which in the forms I have read it seem persuasive - or signpost some places with good and reliable discussion?

Follow trick greenhaugh on twitter.
She will have linked to it on various tweets I’m sure

Sorry!!
Trisha Greenhalgh

I follow her already!

And yes, one of her retweets a few days ago was interesting reading on this.

Just spotted this thread. There's obv a lot of P-2-P discussion/debate between leading scientists (epi/virologists Vs flow engineers/modellers) about this currently, inc those on SAGE & sub-comms - this, self-evidently, isn't in the public domain.

In brief: empirical evidence, or even meta-data analysis, that is real-world/clinical & not lab based or hypothesis, is unfortunately, STILL hard to come by & there is an unresolved dichotomy, largely because it is impossible or impractical, in the current situation, to prove how individuals become infected. Consensus is building that the weight of circumstancial evidence - IE from super-spreader events etc - points to the 'aerosol' (small particle) element of airborne transmission as a very significant vector driver of SARS. WHO hasn't shifted policy on this because national governments rely on it's guidance to inform/support their own policy - the latter have a political imperitive to balance costs Vs risks (IE public health Vs economy). Indeed, 239 internationally renowned scientists wrote an open letter to WHO back in August pleading with them to revise line on aerosols.
Admission of aerosol transmission would therefore blow apart 2m social-distancing & send economies yet further down the toilet. The debate centres on the viability of SARS-COV-2 to be actively infectious by small, evaporated, particles at ranges of

Thank you WitchWanderer - really helpful response

And yes I will look at your linked refs (I often wake early and cannot get back to sleep, and actually rather like ploughing through papers - I just don't know where best to start when I'm off my usual topics!)

No problems

Just checking links btw & second one is broken, should be:

nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/04/see-how-a-sneeze-can-launch-germs-much-farther-than-6-feet