This morning’s news claims one million new plague infections took place in June. That means in 100 months we will have achieved Herd Immunity. Hmmm. Looks like nine years to go. Which of us is going to tolerate being masked up for almost a decade?
Forty years ago we had an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. Seems somebody would have made changes to HVAC codes for enclosed spaces to control the spread of contagion. But that has not taken place, as each season at least one cruise ship has outbreak of respiratory diseases. Do we tear down high density housing and commercial space? Allow only open air markets? Ban travel unless you are in air tight pods? It seems there will be a new way of life that is incompatible with current economical and cultural traditions. More single family homes, bicycles over buses, no trains or planes, take out hole in the wall eateries with open air seating, no more hotels, apartment/condo, dense urban areas. clay I have no pronouns please do not refer to me. > On Jul 8, 2020, at 5:27 AM, Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > The question is not so much whether it spreads as an aerosol. We had 120 > people from a single bar in Mankato test positive shortly after they > reopened. We had about a hundred people infected in South Korean dance > classes. 60 of 80 people from a single choir rehearsal in Washington state. > It definitely can hang around in the air indoors and it can be transmitted > that way if the viral concentration in air is high enough, i e. If > ventilation/air exchange is not high. > > The question is how often this occurs. I would say even once is plenty of > evidence, but the who is dragging its feet. Again a case of what to do when > you don't have super high quality evidence (no randomized blinded studies) > but the facts on the ground are empirically telling you something. Policy > does not always have the luxury of waiting for high quality evidence. > Sometimes you have to act on whatever evidence you have available because > you are overtaken by events (like 130,000 people dying and the global > airline industry being shut down nearly completely and Europe closong its > borders to US citizens). > > Anyway at this point anyone is going to be hard pressed to say it is NOT > transmitted through the air in confined spaces across relatively large > distances. WHO just doesnt want to say that, because it has huge > ramifications for building and commercial aircraft redesign, among other > things, that will take time and lots of money to implement, which means > continued economic misery for lots of sectors of the economy. Compared to > that, wearing masks is starting to look attractive, so major retailers are > now asking the feds to issue national policy guidance to require them in > stores, mainly to avoid employees having to fight with customers about it > and encourage compliance. > > The surgical masks will still slow transmission from infected people. N95 > also, but not the ones with exhaust valves. Something like 20-40% of people > develop only minor symptoms, so pretty much everyone has to wear one to > slow transmission enough to contain the epidemic and let it die down to > manageable levels. It isnt asking very much. Relatively few people here in > South Dakota are wearing one, but I expect that to change. The awareness of > the disease and people's perceived vulnerability to it are highly variable > across the country at the moment. > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
