87/ So what the 5 micron error really reveals is a key sociological aspect. Despite droplet infection being a hypothesis without much evidence, it was SO dominant that the experts didn't even bother with the details, and ignored aerosol experts and their work.

88/ In reality, droplet infection is a house of cards.

From Y. Li's review of the scientific literature: It has NEVER been demonstrated directly for ANY disease in the history of medicine!

[If you have a paper that proves otherwise, pls send it to me]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132320302183

89/ Ease of infection in close proximity could be explained by droplets, but can also be explained by aerosols.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.022

90/ Lack of infection w/ shared air can be explained by some people not exhaling infective virus. Shown for SARS-CoV-2 (slide, )

As for measles for 7 decades, droplet proponents have a HIDDEN assumption: everyone infected sheds lots of infective virus

https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1283

91/ We explain other myths about airborne transmission that have no basis, yet they are constantly repeated by e.g. major @WHO advisors and Public Health authorities around the world to justify droplet transmission of COVID and deny airborne transmission.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.022

92/ During the last many decades, with antibiotics, vaccines, and no huge pandemics, these details of transmission had not been a priority. Droplet experts were in control of all key institutions, could ignore few airborne proponents.

93/ E.g. colleagues mention that often they would write a research proposal to fund a study of airborne transmission.

And the anonymous peer-reviews would come back saying "airborne transmission is not important, therefore we shouldn't waste funding on this."

94/ When I started working on this in Feb. 2020, it seemed that the airborne transmission experts were VERY shy, compared to the significant evidence in favor of airborne.

With time I realized they had PTSD from being ignored and ridiculed over decades! https://twitter.com/linseymarr/status/1390770560653737988

95/ So it is with this background that @WHO confidently declared on 28-March-2020 that "FACT: COVID is NOT AIRBORNE".

And that saying it was airborne was MISINFORMATION, that we need to help @WHO fight! https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en

96/ Lidia Morawska organized an international group of scientists to talk to @WHO, which we did on 3-Apr-2020.

I found that meeting shocking, couldn't get my head around why the @WHO experts were SOOOO dismissive of airborne.

97/ @Don_Milton said the super-strong anti-airborne prejudice was due to history and this Chapin fellow.

I was very perplexed. But I started reading on the history and talking to people. And I learned in the last year what I have told you today.

98/ So yours truly and 100s of scientists have spent the last year working on this, as exemplified by this depiction:

99/ Cleary droplet theory is sinking, unable to explain the observations. Still its proponents are resorting to the equivalent of epicycles, trying to save a failing theory by adding patches like "situational airborne"

But Thomas Kuhn is coming for them w/ a paradigm shift...

100/ Our work is not done. It is critical to tell the world loud and clear that this virus is airborne, 1-on-1 in close proximity and 1-to-several in shared room air.

The message, and the changes in mitigations, have not arrived to many countries, or not clearly.

101/ OK, I'll leave it there for today. But if you made it to here, please answer this question. Should I do something with this thread?

102/ For an automatic translation, see this link (change "Spanish" at the top of the page for the language of interest to you:

…https://wajkksip77lp4xwxn53yvwmjky-ac5fdsxevxq4s5y-threadreaderapp-com.translate.goog/thread/1391111720526024708.html

HT @DrZoeHyde