Risks of aerosol transmission of COVID-19 in practice

In this episode, Daniel has a fascinating conversation with
Professor Jose-Luis Jimenez, aerosol expert and fellow of the
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences
(CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.


In July last year, Professor Jimenez was one of 239 experts in
multiple scientific fields who signed an open letter to the CDC
and WHO (1) urging them to recognise inhalation as the main mode
of transmission of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.


Daniel and Professor Jimenez’s conversation covers the difference
between droplet and aerosol transmission, why it matters and how
to reduce the spread, plus Jose’s publicly available modelling
tool, which you can use to estimate the transmission risk in your
practice (2).


Professor Jimenez shares his own personal recommendations on
specific mask types. The College continues to align its views and
recommendations on masks with those of Public Health England.


Resources mentioned


1. It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID-19) -
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/71/9/2311/5867798


2. Aerosol Transmission Estimator Tool -
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16K1OQkLD4BjgBdO8ePj6ytf-RpPMlJ6aXFg3PrIQBbQ/edit#gid=519189277


3. Indicators for Risk of Airborne Transmission in Shared Indoor
Environments and their application to COVID-19 Outbreaks -
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.21.21255898v1


4. Exhaled CO2 as a COVID-19 Infection Risk Proxy for Different
Indoor Environments and Activities -
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00183


5. Dismantling myths on the airborne transmission of severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) -
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195670121000074