#airborne disease

[pipzeroes]

Spittle versus breath

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

One way to think about it is that droplets are spittle, and aerosols are breath. This is important to understand, because COVID can be transmitted not just by someone's spittle, but also by their breath.

#COVIDisAirborne means there is airborne transmission of COVID. SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID) can remain suspended in tiny bits of moisture floating in the air that spread like cigarette smoke. And, not only is airborne transmission of COVID possible, it has been found to be the dominant method of infection.

Certainly, anything covering someone's mouth will reduce spittle, but spittle alone is not the issue. This is the reason masks must be worn above the nose to be effective- we have to think about breath in our shared air, not just our spittle.

Surgical masks (with gaps at the sides, letting unfiltered air in and out) are not the best protection against airborne disease. This is also why face-shields (used without a mask) are not very effective for preventing COVID, just like face-shields don't protect against secondhand smoke.

To continue the cigarette comparison: while the ash from a cigarette falls to the ground, its smoke remains suspended in the air. Ash can be thought of as similar to droplets/spittle and aerosols/breath can be compared to cigarette smoke.

Do you remember "smoking sections" in restaurants and bars, or on airplanes? Though you may breathe in more secondhand smoke by sitting right next to the smoker, you are still impacted by the secondhand smoke even if more than two metres from the source (especially when in an enclosed space).

This is why we no longer have smoking sections!

Another comparison: Imagine viruses are tiny people, and droplets/spittle or aerosols/breath are their spaceships.

Some viruses, SARS-CoV-2 included, are not viably transmissible for very long unless they remain in moisture- just like humans cannot survive in space without a spaceship or space suit.

Unlike vessels in space, however, we are subject to the gravity of Earth. Larger droplets/spittle do fall to the ground within a few metres of the host in moments. However, even with Earth's gravity, aerosols/breath can remain suspended in the air for some time.

This means that if someone infectious with COVID has left a room, the air in that room could still be a risk to someone else entering that room if the air is not well ventilated or effectively filtered- especially if the infected person and/or potential new host are unmasked (or even not masked well- for example, with a mask below their nose).

Some have asked, "If a virus is so tiny, how is a mask supposed to stop it? Air passes through!"

Imagine a defense network against enemy spaceships, a woven web of SPACE LASERS with gaps between them too small for spaceships to pass through. A human might seem small enough to fit through the gaps between the lasers, but they aren't going to be able to even reach this point without a spaceship to transport them.

What about really small particles, though?

To continue this comparison, imagine also that this web of space lasers not only captures things when touching them, but attracts and draws objects in to them. Say an astronaut suits up, figuring they'll be small enough to pass through this web by themselves without a spaceship. However, the nature of this space web means they'd be drawn in, attracted, and captured anyway!

The construction of N95 masks means they attract airborne particles to their material, capturing these particles (similar to this imaginary web of space lasers capturing spaceships and errant astronauts).

It is 2023, and we know enough to understand that COVID is airborne, that COVID is dangerous even to "healthy" people "with an immune system", that after a so-called "mild" case there can be long term consequences (including Long COVID), that children are not immune, that ventilation and air filtration reduce the risk of transmission, and that masks help reduce the spread (especially when there is widespread adoption of masks at a population level) if they are effectively worn (over your nose, for a start!)

By understanding that #COVIDisAirborne, and that infected breath is a concern (not just spittle), the importance of ventilation, air filtration, and masks can start to make more sense.

COVID is airborne, and can spread through breath. To be prevented, COVID needs to be approached with this in mind.

[dsudis]

Help win cleaner indoor air!

The Airborne Act (H.R. 9000) creates incentives to clean up indoor air! It offers tax credits to commercial building owners for conducting indoor air quality assessments and making upgrades to ventilation and air filtration.

Indoor air quality upgrades can reduce substantially airborne diseases—protecting our health and decreasing health care expenses, lost wages and lost productivity.

[philanthropicpeople]

Vitalik Buterin Puts Money Against Disease

Vitalik Buterin Puts Money Against Disease

Vitalik Buterin has donated $15 million in cryptocurrency to the University of California San Diego to fund research into airborne pathogens like COVID-19. The Balvi Filanthropic Fund is the actual source of the donation, but it is directed entirely by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. It was founded in 2022 to handle another of Buterin’s donations, several million in Shiba Inu Coin also for…

[todaysbird]

note for people writing disaster type stories about airborne viruses/pollutants/etc: the birds will die first.

[ladyshinga]

IDK why celebrities fuss so much about being recognized IRL post-2020. WEAR A MASK. WEAR A FACEMASK and some GLASSES or something and BOOM, face hidden with a reasonable social excuse for hiding it.

(Sidenote it also irritates tf out of me seeing TV shows or movies made after 2020 where "wear a mask" would be an incredibly easy solution to something and NO ONE EVER THINKS OF IT)

[liminalweirdo]

COVID is airborne. Airborne transmission is different from droplets, which are large particles containing the virus, expelled when you speak, cough, sneeze, etc. Droplets are heavy enough that they will eventually drop to the ground or nearby surfaces, meaning it’s relatively easy to contain: any physical barrier — like a cloth mask or plexiglass — will block these droplets before they can reach another person. “Social distancing” is a concept that applies to droplet transmission, under the presumption that the virus-containing droplets will fall to the ground before reaching someone 6 feet away. Sanitizing surfaces kills any viral droplets that have landed on them before someone can touch them and then touch their orifices.

However, COVID is not confined to droplets. We have known for years that it can spread through aerosol as papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Risk Analysis demonstrate going back to 2020. Aerosol is composed of much smaller particles that bounce around between air particles, and can stay suspended and infectious in the air. Picture someone smoking: the behavior of the smoke is much more akin to the behavior of viral aerosols. Can you still smell the smoke behind a plexiglass shield? How about if you’re six feet apart? In a crowded, enclosed space, how many people would breathe in the smoke of one smoker? Measures designed to protect against droplets aren’t exactly pointless against COVID, since it also spreads via droplets. But just because you’re not spewing COVID-laden spittle in someone’s face does not mean you’re keeping your germs to yourself.

[transmascwoman]

people who can't even be asked to mask freaking out about mpox like... wow that's crazy. that's so crazy. how sad we as a collective can't do anything to stop the spread of diseases. so sad.

[pandemic-info]

The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing And Briefly Saved Lives : Shots - Health News : NPR

This does not have a happy ending.

But it's important.

[playingplayer2]

Just thinking about how if the world had kept masking, like seriously masking, from 2020-now how different everything would be. Like if you treated a deadly pandemic like a deadly pandemic, instead of downplaying it and gaslighting the people affected by it, if you didn't spread misinformation, if it being airborne wasn't hushed up from the fucking get-go. Just fucking everything.

I haven't hung out with people since late 2021. Basically all my friends stopped masking and started acting like I was being paranoid about a "minor cold." Like the actual fuck?

"when you feel safe going out again" LIKE BIRCH HOW TF AM I GONNA FEEL SAFE WHEN YOU'VE BEEN GOING AROUND UNMASKED to sports games and your job and family events and fucking weddings and restaurants and bars? HOW

How am I going to feel safe when you gaslight me in every conversation and fallout ignore me for literal days if I send information about covid and its effects? Literally how.

It causes people permanent, chronic heart, lung, brain, and other organ damage! It causes fertility issues! Chronic fatigue- I already HAVE chronic fatigue! It makes things like POTS and hEDS worse! A mild case now could mean a sudden stroke or heart attack in your near future!

Babies being born with glass lung, babies being born with covid- COVID fucking COLONIZES your body! It HIDES INSIDE YOU. And dear gods! The toxic work culture of work even when you're sick, go to school even when your sick!! Spread it far and wide to everyone WHEN YOU'RE SICK.

Politicize HEALTHCARE- it's been happening for for-fucking-ever so let's do it some more!

It's a FUCKING VIRUSSSSSS THAT CAN EVEN CHANGE HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS

It can make you become more violent, more impulsive, aggressive, fucking SUICIDAL.

Cognitive issues GALORE, including L I T E R A L L Y losing braincells!!! Literally!!!

So yeah. It's great. I'm fine. This is fine.

I'm not massively depressed or angry over this. I mean, I, and everyone else, have only lost the last 4-5 years. I turned 18 after the pandemic started. I'm now 22. And it's still ongoing! I definitely don't feel suicidal because it doesn't seem like it's gonna fucking end, not at all. It's fantastic even! I get to be scared that by wearing my mask out in public, I could get attacked. I've certainly been harassed over it enough times.

It's not like how the world has mishandled covid has led to the mishandling of majorly infectious diseases (*cough* Monkey pox *cough* H5N1 *cough*). No, of fucking course not.

It's not essentially LIKE AIDS- IT'S NOT LIKE CHINA WAS GONNA CALL IT SAIDS - AS IN: SARS-AIDS!!!! BEFORE THE FUCKING WHO SHUT THAT DOWN. NOOOOOOO

It's not like it was caused by lax bio & security measures in fucking Canada— because they didn't fucking vet they're employees and their BSL standards WERE FOR SHIT!!!!!!!!

It's not like everyone in my house is at a higher risk of getting it. It's not like we'd be totally screwed over if even one of us were even slightly less able-bodied. It's thin fucking line most days but I'm terrified of what would/could happen if I am unable to make meals and do laundry, I already have to spend most of my days sitting or laying down. I don't fucking know what I'd do if I couldn't do that. I don't know what my family would do.

My family is trying to get OUT of an unsafe household where extended family belittle and gaslight and get violent regularly because we need, need, NEED, for us and them to keep masking. Said extended family has literally threatened to kill us before! So it's great.

It's fantastic.

[neighborhoodsimulator]

their attic is literally a biohazard. i forgot it was there until i decided i wanted a glass roof and greenhouse in the spare room

[meeedeee]

Avoid COVID Reinfections

"But there is also growing evidence that in some people, getting COVID-19 the first time may compromise the immune response in a way that makes the body less likely to respond effectively the next time it sees the virus. That could leave certain organs and body systems, such as the brain, weaker for months after infection—and subsequent ones."

“Each time you get hit, it does impact your body, so let’s try not to get it too many times,” says Smith."

"Data also continue to show that even vaccinated people can get Long COVID—although the risk may be lower—since the protection provided by vaccines wanes over time, just as it does from infections. Vaccines are therefore a strong but not absolute barrier to the virus."

"In the meantime, Smith says it’s important for people to understand that they still need to do everything they can to avoid getting COVID-19. That means staying up to date with vaccinations and taking some basic precautions, such as wearing high-quality masks indoors when cases are high, especially in crowded places and on public transportation"

[cockyroaches]

1 day I'll find someone who thinks my endless tirades about snails not being diseased or particularly harmful to humans unless youre insane enough to lick them are Hot and then I'm going to be unstoppable forever.

[gxlden-angels]

Live, Laugh, Leprosy

[nando161mando]

"Swedish residents were able to enjoy themselves at bars and restaurants, their schools remained open, and somehow their economy thrived and they remained healthy. So say their fans, especially on the anti-lockdown right.

A new study by European scientific researchers buries all those claims in the ground. Published in Nature, the study paints a devastating picture of Swedish policies and their effects."

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-31/sweden-covid-policy-was-a-disaster

[rootbeerrex]

girl I just finished reading contagion for the first time and all I'm gonna say is that I've gotta assume it would've been easier to enjoy pre-covid.