(TJV) After the CDC changed it’s risk guidelines for COVID transmission to include the serious risks of “airborne” infection, they retracted the information , resulting in universal confusion.
In July, a group of 200 scientists sent a letter to the WHO urging the international public health agency to change its guidance on the spread of the disease. The problem scientists argued is that the WHO hasn’t updated its views to incorporate new research showing that aerosol spread is a much greater threat than touching contaminated surfaces, or via large droplets spread by close contact between individuals.
The WHO suggests that the coronavirus is primarily transmitted by coughing or sneezing large droplets into someone’s face, not a longer-term threat that can be floating in the air, and takes the same position even after heavy media coverage of scientific studies showing the lingering effect of “airborne” particles.
WHO has refused these overtures themselves and recently successfully convinced the CDC to do the same.
After the WHO announced earlier that it had reached out to the CDC over the guidance change, the agency informed American media outlets that a “draft version” of the guidance had been “posted in error”.
A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website,” the CDC said. “CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.”
PBS reported:
Aerosols are particles that are suspended in the air. When humans breathe, talk, sing, cough or sneeze, the emitted respiratory droplets mix in the surrounding air and form an aerosol. Because larger droplets quickly fall to the ground, respiratory aerosols are often described as being made up of smaller droplets that are less than 5 microns, or about one tenth the width of a human hair.
WSJ pointed out: Experts quoted in the US press reports are already slamming the CDC for injecting more confusion into the conversation surrounding COVID-19 prevention at a particularly risky time. After all, schools are still reopening across the US and many are diving headlong into the unknown, fearful that all of this activity could cause another wave of the pandemic, as Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned yesterday.
This does create a lot of confusion. Does COVID linger in the air with small “aerosol” particles? Why does the WHO reject these studies? Why did the CDC draft recommendations based on these findings from July? Why did they retract them?
After all of this time, the route of COVID transmission is obviously still not settled and leaves the public with more questions than answers
