As I watch the ramping up of institutional #covid19 #outbreak #notifications in #Ontario, it is yet another wave's reminder that, at least in Canada, #IPAC is mostly a cargo cult science.

"The form is perfect. ... But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land." - Richard Feynman https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_science

We deeply need an IPAC discipline that takes #aerosol #airborne transmission mitigation very seriously. We need an airborne revolution to get to #CleanAir, to #SafeAir

I know a few counterpoints to this view like Dr Victor Leung from BC who is a true practice leader in the field, but they are rare and rather quiet due to discipline pressure to conform to approved #DropletDogma

If you are in IPAC, please help drive your discipline from a handwashing, droplet & contacts precaution compliance mindset to one that truely embraces airborne risk mitigation, if not elimination. Don't just transfer the risk to the patient, and wash your hands of it.

It might be my life you save. It certainly could have been both my parents.

@kennethb
That excludes most (but not all) of CA IPAC practioners including the top IPAC heads in the major Toronto hospitals who filed affidavits under oath that it's not airborne, droplet precautions are just fine.

They are wrong b/c #CovidIsAirborne and he we are all.

#DropletDogma #DropletDogmaKills
@jmcrookston

@jmcrookston
This was priceless. I saw it in real time.

Conly's bias was crystal clear, shouted from the rooftops.

I just block anyone asserting him from then on.

#dropletdogma

Slide 15, Quest of the Virosols

Surface cleaning does NOT stop airborne transmission

Although it is important to keep surfaces clean, surface cleaning does NOT suppress the risk of airborne transmission. Clean the air!

Source: http://aerosol.nsysu.edu.tw/en/scopes/108

#COVIDisAirborne #COVIDisNOTover #COVIDisOngoing #SARSCoV2 #COVID #SARS2 #DropletDogma

@jeffsamsonow

For sure!

The #DropletDogma is still such an issue that, yes, this needs to be repeated: you're MUCH more likely to get #COVID from tiny, floating bits of moisture containing #SARSCoV2 (and that's the angle I see QotV coming from)

However- droplets are not without risk, and other diseases very happily spread on surfaces (diseases which become more of a danger when one's immune system has been impaired, e.g. by COVID), so, yeah: hand/surface hygiene still important!

@SourPatchAdult "Aerosol transmission was not investigated in this study and therefore cannot be excluded as a potential route of household spread."

ie. #DropletDogma proves #DropletDogma

https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2666-5247%2823%2900069-1

There has been confusion around "droplets" and "aerosols"; what do they mean? What's the difference?

It's the difference between spittle and breath.

https://www.tumblr.com/pipzeroes/705932996789829632/spittle-versus-breath

#COVIDisAirborne #COVIDisNOTover #LongCOVID #COVID #SARSCoV2 #DropletDogma #airborne #disease #airbornedisease #mask #masks #maskup #spittle #breath

Washing your hands helps protect against getting sick in general, but "cleaned hands" are NOT the best way of preventing #airborne #disease (no matter what some people may say otherwise).

#COVIDisAirborne #cleanedhands #dropletdogma #XBB15 #kraken #bcpoli #cdnpoli

I have some ideas about using memes (and other pictures) as PSAs ["Public Service Announcements" i.e. public education] re: COVID which would result in a video, but I think it'll be better put together by... working together.

#COVIDisAirborne #kraken #XBB15 #dropletdogma #COVIDisNOTover #zeroes

I have some ideas about using memes as PSAs re: COVID which would culminate in a video, but I think it'll be better put together by... working together.

#COVIDisAirborne #XBB15 #dropletdogma #COVIDisNOTover #zeroes

There is ample evidence that #COVIDisAirborne, but the #DropletDogma persists as people are told that the best way to prevent the spread of #SARSCoV2 is to wash their hands.

Hand hygiene is good for a variety of reasons, but it's certainly not the most effective way to prevent #COVID.

In this image, someone misidentifies airborne #SARS-CoV-2 as droplets. It is a reference to the #DropletDogma, a belief running counter to the reality that tiny particles of moisture people emit (even when just breathing) can contain infectious diseases.

#COVIDisAirborne because these bits of infected moisture can remain suspended in the air (able to float distances greater than two metres).

Unfortunately, unlike the cartoon viruses in this image, these tiny particles are basically invisible.

In this image, someone is misidentifying airborne #SARS-CoV-2 as droplets. It is a reference to the #DropletDogma (a belief running counter to the reality that tiny particles of moisture people emit when even just breathing can contain infectious diseases).

#COVIDisAirborne because these bits of infected moisture can remain suspended in the air (able to float distances greater than two metres). Unfortunately, unlike the cartoon viruses in this image, the tiny particles are basically invisible.

In this image, someone is misidentifying airborne #SARS-CoV-2 as droplets, and it is a reference to the #DropletDogma (a belief that runs counter to the reality that the tiny particles of moisture people emit when even just breathing can contain infectious diseases).

@graeme_0 I agree the picture is very serious

But saying SARS *is* AIDS is not IMO helpful

As someone with LongCovid symptoms because of #DropletDogma policy in Wave 1, telling me I have a fatal disease with no treatment is perhaps not the most compassionate approach nor does the evidence support that yet

I hold out hope we will find a strategy to manage the long term impacts. To do that, we need to understand how it is similar *and* how it is different

In the meantime, P100 everywhere.

Oh the cognitive dissonance of these two WHO events happening back to back:

1. Departing WHO chief scientist says how she regretted the WHO not acknowledging #CovidIsAirborne earlier

2. WHO scientist says "we at WHO think covid is droplet spread except in certain unusual situations" i.e. pure #dropletDogma

Trisha Greenhalgh wrote a great counterpoint paper early this month on how the flawed “situationally airborne” narrative emerged & was legitimised by WHO

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-069940.full.pdf

We looked at the role of distance and the evaporation behaviour means that it can be 2m+ before exposure starts to drop. Distance matters but it may be further than we think. And it increases as humidity decreases

h/t Prof Noakes

#dropletDogma #COVIDisAirborne

CIDRAP does an excellent take-down of the ethically questionable bad RCT released today in Annals of Internal Medicine asserting medical masks are as protective as respirators from notorious #dropletDogma adherents

tl;dr underpowered & broken. McMaster should be ashamed of it

Excellent responses from Raina MacIntyre, Lisa Brosseau, Roger Chou

Well worth the read:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/11/study-masks-vs-n95-respirators-health-workers-spurs-concerns

#COVID19 #CovidIsAirborne

RT @a_longhurst@twitter.com

No, it’s not harder to justify. Just the opposite. All the viruses were dealing with can be mitigated by wearing masks to prevent transmission.

If you talk to the #DropletDogma crowd, you will get the same answer.

Masks do work, and we need them to protect our health system. https://twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/1593986341586767872

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/a_longhurst/status/1594116785129017344

RT @a_longhurst
No, it’s not harder to justify. Just the opposite. All the viruses were dealing with can be mitigated by wearing masks to prevent transmission.

If you talk to the #DropletDogma crowd, you will get the same answer.

Masks do work, and we need them to protect our health system. https://twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/1593986341586767872