
2) Some people don’t like the term ‘airborne’ for complicated semantics. But these stqble microdroplet aerosols that can float in the air for many hours (up to 16 hours indoors in stagnant air in another study) does indeed have potential & ability to replicate and grow. #COVID19
3) Just to be clear, this wasn’t aerosols generated by artificial machines like some experiments, the researchers gathered the aerosol particles from a hospital w/ patients with #covid19. And aerosols <1 micrometers “demonstrates the prescience of infectious replicating virons”.
4) And here are the #SARSCoV2 virions (virus particles) from electron microscope that they collected and cultivated from the air samples. They grew it via a cell culture in a Petri dish - and the viruses replicated!
5) So what does this mean? The authors state (note its still pending peer review), that “study supports the use of efficient respiratory protection and airborne isolation precautions to protect from exposure to fine SARS-CoV-2 aerosol when interacting with infected individuals”
6) “...regardless of symptoms or medical procedure being performed.... Given the infectious nature of aerosol collected in this study, taken with the other lines of evidence presented, further suggests that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is possible...”
7) “and that aerosol prevention measures should be implemented to effectively stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2, particularly in crowded settings.”
8) Two top scientists - an aerosol expert and a virologist to Merkel now believe aersols are major contributors to #COVID19 infections. https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1285603683531665408?s=21 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1285603683531665408