2021 Annual Meeting of the APS Four Corners Section
Volume 66, Number 11
Friday–Saturday, October 8–9, 2021;
Virtual; Mountain Daylight Time
Session A01: Plenary I
9:00 AM–10:15 AM,
Friday, October 8, 2021
Chair: Astrid Morreale, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract: A01.00002 : The modes of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses: What we know now, and how to protect ourselves
9:15 AM–9:45 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Jose Jimenez
(University of Colorado, Boulder)
The modes of transmission of COVID 19 have been the subject of intense
controversy. Overwhelming evidence supports that COVID 19 transmission is
mostly airborne: some infected people (those with high viral load) exhale
little balls of respiratory fluid and saliva that contain the virus
(``respiratory aerosols''), that float in the air like an invisible smoke,
following air currents. Aerosols infect when we inhale them, and easily
explain substantial transmission in close proximity, superspreading events,
and why transmission indoors is far larger than outdoors. Surface
transmission is difficult, and not a single case of surface transmission has
been demonstrated. A small fraction may go through ballistic ``WHO''
droplets, mostly important when an infected person coughs or sneezes on
someone's else face. The causes of the WHO's extreme resistance to aerosol
transmission are rooted in a century of denial of airborne transmission,
since the work of American public health luminary Charles V. Chapin in 1910.
I will present some ideas about how to protect ourselves better from COVID
19 in the coming months and also from other respiratory diseases, focusing
on the ones that appear to be underappreciated: (1) the use of visible CO2
monitors in all public spaces where we share air with others; (2) the
critical importance of mask fit; and (3) the types of air cleaners, of which
some are very useful (filters and UV) and others are likely or certainly
dangerous (those based on chemistry such as ions, plasmas, and hydroxyls, or
those based on spraying chemicals in the air). Resources include: Lancet:
\underline {https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00869-2}; Science 1:
\underline {https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/689}; Science 2:
\underline {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd9149};
Scientist's frequently asked questions: \underline
{http://tinyurl.com/faqs-aerosol}; Presentation slides: \underline
{http://Bit.ly/COVID-Aerosols3}; Estimator of COVID-19 transmission:
\underline {http://tinyurl.com/covid-estimator}; Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jljcolorado