The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
The new definition moves away from past distinctions between infectious particles being 'droplets' or 'aerosols' based on size, focusing instead on the risk of exposure and severity of disease.
During the early days of COVID in 2020, around 200 aerosol scientists publicly complained that the WHO had failed to warn people of the risk that the virus could spread through the air, leading to an overemphasis on measures like handwashing over ventilation.
#disease-transmission #airborne-diseases #covid-19-pandemic #world-health-organization #prevention-strategies
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]