The pressure is on for Australia to accept the coronavirus really can spread in the air we breathe – MENAFN.COM

The pressure is on for Australia to accept the coronavirus really can spread in the air we breathe – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - The Conversation) More than a year into the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Centers for Disease Control to acknowledge SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be transmitted through the air we breathe. In Australia, we''ve just had the latest leak from hotel quarantine, this time in South Australia. to find out whether a man may have caught the virus from someone in the hotel room next to his, before travelling to Victoria, and whether airborne transmission played a role. These examples are further for Australia to officially recognise the role of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Such recognition would have widespread implications for how health-care workers are protected, how hotel quarantine is managed, not to mention public health advice more broadly. Indeed, we''re waiting to hear whether will acknowledge the latest evidence on airborne transmission, and amend its advice about how best to protect front-line workers. The evidence has changed and so must our advice At the beginning of the pandemic, in the absence of any scientific studies, the WHO the virus was spread by ''large droplets'' and promoted handwashing. Authorities around the world even us from wearing masks. A false narrative dominated public discussion