Letters to the Tribe #8: A Call for a Worst-Case Scenario Approach to Coronavirus Protection
I wish for us to be joined in calling the attention of all frontline workers, officials and individuals in danger of coronavirus exposure, the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and Vice President Pence.
It behooves us to adopt a worst-case scenario preparedness in dealing with the new coronavirus and not be content with the current backward-looking approach. This virus is an unknown and our experience in preventive measures against previously known viral and bacterial pathogens may not be enough to protect us from COVID-19 that is displaying a stealthy contagiousness and a fierce virulence on human tissues. Please study the reports mentioned below and pass the info on to all people of health care influence and front-liners that you know.
Over the weekend, two important studies were released showing that droplets from coughing or sneezing can be carried farther than the current protective social distancing prescribed by WHO, CDC, and government health care officials. It seems that these recommendations apply only to large droplets, not to microscopic droplets that may travel even up to 27 feet or more if artificially aerosolized by hospital machines.
According to Fox News, in a joint study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, and others, researchers found genetic material from the virus that causes COVID-19 in air samples from both in and outside of confirmed coronavirus patients’ rooms. The findings offer “limited evidence that some potential for airborne transmission exists," researchers said, though they warned that the findings do not confirm airborne spread. — https://www.foxnews.com/health/corona...
Click here for the original article: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.11...
Also, the current WHO and CDC 6-foot social distancing recommendation is probably not enough as this distance is good only for large droplets, not small ones, e.g. from a sneeze, which can travel up to 27 feet and certainly not for machine driven microscopic aerosolized droplets in hospital settings, according to Lydia Bourouiba, PhD, of MIT in a JAMA article (see link below). According to her, “it may seem surprising that the current understanding of the routes of host-to-host transmission in respiratory infectious diseases are predicated on a model of disease transmission developed in the 1930s that, by modern standards, seems overly simplified.”
She also said that a study reported from China “demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus particles could be found in the ventilation systems in hospital rooms of patients with COVID-19.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...
We are in this together. Let us work in unity combat this contagion!
Lena Rabi Capapas, M.D.
www.lovethisuniverse.com
https://www.amazon.com/Lena-Rabi-Capa...
It behooves us to adopt a worst-case scenario preparedness in dealing with the new coronavirus and not be content with the current backward-looking approach. This virus is an unknown and our experience in preventive measures against previously known viral and bacterial pathogens may not be enough to protect us from COVID-19 that is displaying a stealthy contagiousness and a fierce virulence on human tissues. Please study the reports mentioned below and pass the info on to all people of health care influence and front-liners that you know.
Over the weekend, two important studies were released showing that droplets from coughing or sneezing can be carried farther than the current protective social distancing prescribed by WHO, CDC, and government health care officials. It seems that these recommendations apply only to large droplets, not to microscopic droplets that may travel even up to 27 feet or more if artificially aerosolized by hospital machines.
According to Fox News, in a joint study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, and others, researchers found genetic material from the virus that causes COVID-19 in air samples from both in and outside of confirmed coronavirus patients’ rooms. The findings offer “limited evidence that some potential for airborne transmission exists," researchers said, though they warned that the findings do not confirm airborne spread. — https://www.foxnews.com/health/corona...
Click here for the original article: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.11...
Also, the current WHO and CDC 6-foot social distancing recommendation is probably not enough as this distance is good only for large droplets, not small ones, e.g. from a sneeze, which can travel up to 27 feet and certainly not for machine driven microscopic aerosolized droplets in hospital settings, according to Lydia Bourouiba, PhD, of MIT in a JAMA article (see link below). According to her, “it may seem surprising that the current understanding of the routes of host-to-host transmission in respiratory infectious diseases are predicated on a model of disease transmission developed in the 1930s that, by modern standards, seems overly simplified.”
She also said that a study reported from China “demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus particles could be found in the ventilation systems in hospital rooms of patients with COVID-19.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...
We are in this together. Let us work in unity combat this contagion!
Lena Rabi Capapas, M.D.
www.lovethisuniverse.com
https://www.amazon.com/Lena-Rabi-Capa...
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