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COVID-19 and airborne transmission : science rejected, lives lost : can society do better?

Morawska, Lidia ; Bahnfleth, William ; Bluyssen, Philomena M ; Boerstra, Atze ; Buonanno, Giorgio ; Dancer, Stephanie J ; Floto, Andres ; Franchimon, Francesco ; Haworth, Charles and Hogeling, Jaap , et al. (2023) In Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 76(10). p.1854-1859
Abstract

This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story, we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue and the... (More)

This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story, we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Airborne transmission, Airborne infection spread, Coronavirus, COVID -19, SARS-CoV-2 virus
in
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
volume
76
issue
10
pages
1854 - 1859
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • pmid:36763042
  • scopus:85160206684
ISSN
1537-6591
DOI
10.1093/cid/ciad068
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9e42d075-bb20-47c1-b975-9503da6ecc56
date added to LUP
2023-03-20 09:37:06
date last changed
2024-06-16 04:15:13
@article{9e42d075-bb20-47c1-b975-9503da6ecc56,
  abstract     = {{<p>This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story, we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Morawska, Lidia and Bahnfleth, William and Bluyssen, Philomena M and Boerstra, Atze and Buonanno, Giorgio and Dancer, Stephanie J and Floto, Andres and Franchimon, Francesco and Haworth, Charles and Hogeling, Jaap and Isaxon, Christina and Jimenez, Jose L and Kurnitski, Jarek and Li, Yuguo and Loomans, Marcel and Marks, Guy and Marr, Linsey C and Mazzarella, Livio and Melikov, Arsen Krikor and Miller, Shelly and Milton, Donald K and Nazaroff, William and Nielsen, Peter V and Noakes, Catherine and Peccia, Jordan and Querol, Xavier and Sekhar, Chandra and Seppänen, Olli and Tanabe, Shin-Ichi and Tellier, Raymond and Tham, Kwok Wai and Wargocki, Pawel and Wierzbicka, Aneta}},
  issn         = {{1537-6591}},
  keywords     = {{Airborne transmission; Airborne infection spread; Coronavirus; COVID -19; SARS-CoV-2 virus}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{1854--1859}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America}},
  title        = {{COVID-19 and airborne transmission : science rejected, lives lost : can society do better?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad068}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/cid/ciad068}},
  volume       = {{76}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}