The World Health Organization (WHO) is reviewing a report urging it to update guidance on the novel coronavirus after more than 200 scientists from 32 different countries and many different areas of science (including virology, aerosol physics and epidemiology) have penned an open letter urging the WHO to change their advice.
The open letter addressed to the WHO contradicted what the health agency had been saying till now. Scientists have urged WHO to reconsider its stand that COVID-19 spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person that quickly sink to the ground.
According to open letter, floating virus particles can infect people who breathe them in.
So far the virus is believed to be transmitted through three ways — large respiratory droplets, direct contact with infected people or contaminated surfaces. Prompting the health organisation to stress on the need for washing hands and following social distancing measures to stop the transmission of the virus.
Airborne Coronavirus: What we need to know now, what we knew earlier
- In an open letter to the WHO, 239 scientists have outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people.
- This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants.
- It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech.
- Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
- Aerosols are droplets, droplets are aerosols — they do not differ except in size.
- Scientists sometimes refer to droplets fewer than five microns in diameter as aerosols.
- “Until an effective vaccine against COVID-19 is available, we have to continue to do the hard, albeit tedious, work of keeping ourselves safe and healthy—by wearing facial coverings, keeping our social distance, practicing good hand hygiene, and staying home when we’re sick,” says Jaimie Meyer, MD, MS, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist.
Previous Study
A letter to the editor published in The New England Journal of Medicine in mid-March showed the virus that causes COVID-19 may be stable for several hours in aerosols (in this case, droplets from an infected person dispersed in air or gas) and for several hours to days on surfaces.
Scientists who participated in the analysis found SARS-CoV-2 was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, copper up to four hours, cardboard up to 24 hours, and plastic and stainless steel up to two to three days.
