CANADA - “Flügge droplets,” or mucosalivary droplets expelled through actions such as coughing and sneezing, have been identified as integral to the transmission of COVID-19. However, analyzing these droplets has proved to be unexpectedly difficult with respect to COVID-19. This is because the mucosalivary droplets are “cocooned within a warm, moist enveloping gas cloud… that protects the droplets from evaporation and allows even small globules to travel much farther than one might otherwise predict.” This protection of sorts for the mucosalivary droplets allows them to deliver a pathogen payload “about four times the length of the six-foot social-distancing buffer zone we’ve all been taught to enforce since mid-March.”
Thus, the transmission of COVID-19 does not occur on the “microscopic scale of nucleic acids or on the gargantuan scale of whole nations. It takes place on the everyday face-to-face scale of inches and feet.” Nonetheless, scientific awareness is least prominent concerning COVID-19’s mode of transmission.
Two classifications have been articulated regarding how droplets can be emitted: first, very large payloads of mucosalivary droplets that fall due to gravity after being expelled, and second, clouds similar to fine aerosols that have the potential remain in the air for much longer than the larger droplets. It is imperative to discern which of the two classifications is predominately responsible for the spread of COVID-19. “Policy optimization depends entirely on which mechanism (if any) is dominant.”
If large droplets prove to be the primary transmission mode of COVID-19, then expanded use of masks and social distancing is critical. However, if clouds of tiny aerosol droplets are dominant, social distancing protocols become less important. In that case, outdoor spaces would need to be prioritized and indoor ventilation systems improved. A third mode of transmission, contaminated services, would require fastidious washing of hands and wiping down of surfaces.
Unfortunately, international data has not been useful when trying to determine which mode is dominant. To remedy this, the article attempts to aggregate data from 58 “superspreading events” (SSEs) in an effort to discover the dominant form of transmission.
The data of the 58 SSEs showed “almost all of the SSEs took place indoors, where people tend to pack closer together in social situations, and where ventilation is poorer.” Additionally, of the 54 SSEs for which there was an associated underlying activity, only 11 did not involve religious activity, a party, a funeral, a cruise, or extended face-to-face professional networking. Four SSEs occurred at meatpacking plants, where workers must communicate loudly and with force in order to overcome the loud machinery. Three SSEs occurred at sporting events where “fans regularly rain saliva in all directions as they communally celebrate or commiserate in response to each turn of fortune.”
In conclusion, “When do COVID-19 SSEs happen? Based on the list I’ve assembled, the short answer is: Wherever and whenever people are up in each other’s faces, laughing, shouting, cheering, sobbing, singing, greeting, and praying.” Business cubicles do not seem to emerge as hotspots for SSEs, regardless of the uneven quality of ventilation in workplaces across the globe. Additionally, SSEs did not emerge in university classrooms, “which one would expect to be massive engines of infection if COVID-19 could be transmitted easily through airborne small-droplet diffusion.” Moreover, airplane flights have not emerged as epicenters of SSEs.
Simply put, there is a clear pattern of transmission which is “human behaviour that permits the direct ballistic delivery of a large-droplet Flüggian payload from face A to face B.” If the virus is indeed transmitted through the ballistic transmission of large respiratory particles, the information would be valuable for policymakers wanting of restarting the economy.
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