Quote:
Originally Posted by gillygirl
Guess there’s debate among the infectious disease community that is causing the confusion with regards to the airborne nomenclature.
https://www.wired.com/story/they-say...-borne-by-air/
For me, this snippet from the CDC makes clear that you can catch it through the air and not just by touching a surface that it’s landed on.
“The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.
Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...nsmission.html
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Of course you can catch it through the air, just by infected people breathing within a few feet of you. If contagion were only through surfaces, it couldn't possibly have become the pandemic that it is.
There's zero confusion among experts about this, and Gillygirl is absolutely right that any confusion is only about the nomenclature/terminology used by experts. Coronavirus germs are not “airborne” in the sense do not float in the air for long periods of time, but easily enough time to be inhaled by anyone nearby before they drop to surfaces.
My daughter-in-law is an infectious diseases and infection control specialist at a major hospital. Her brother is a pulmonary and primary doctor at a smaller hospital in a different city. They obviously both wear extreme protective gear at work and are scrupulous about what and how they touch any surfaces outside. He has just been diagnosed with the disease, which he could only have caught by inhaling it from someone when he was in streetwear. Fortunately, he's strong, otherwise healthy, and in his late 30s, so his case is expected to be mild-moderate, and he's quarantined in one particular area of his family's home — hopefully, his much more vulnerable parents-in-law, who live in the same home, didn't get it when he was incubating.
Anyone who can read the CDC info yet shrug off social-distancing should not share his obtuseness on public forums.