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 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.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , SARS-CoV-2 , Pandemics/prevention & control , World Health Organization , SocietiesABSTRACT
The measures taken in buildings to make them resilient against the spread of airborne diseases have seen a rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are of importance as bioaerosols spread through recirculation based air conditioning systems. This can be tackled by sanitisation or by dilution ventilation caused by increased fresh air supply. In response to a written petition by a lawyer on the issue of air conditioning in the court premises and the spread of COVID-19, the Delhi High Court held the Fundamental Rights of the citizens by extending it to a right to a healthy environment and acknowledging the concerns in the petition. A committee was also set up by the court to relook at the ventilation and air conditioning within the court. The Right to Information Act, 2005 was used to obtain the minutes of the committee meetings. This short communication discusses the decisions which provide insights into the lack of reliable information available in the initial phases of the meetings. This has been hinted to show the possible lack of regulation for infection control through airborne route in public buildings. Design decisions are also looked at. This paper aims at providing a commentary with the aim of linking research and practice in the area of bioaerosol spread of diseases like COVID-19 and tuberculosis in public spaces. Copyright (c) 2022: Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Hand washing and maintaining social distance are the main measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to avoid contracting COVID-19. Unfortunately, these measured do not prevent infection by inhalation of small droplets exhaled by an infected person that can travel distance of meters or tens of meters in the air and carry their viral content. Science explains the mechanisms of such transport and there is evidence that this is a significant route of infection in indoor environments. Despite this, no countries or authorities consider airborne spread of COVID-19 in their regulations to prevent infections transmission indoors. It is therefore extremely important, that the national authorities acknowledge the reality that the virus spreads through air, and recommend that adequate control measures be implemented to prevent further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in particularly removal of the virus-laden droplets from indoor air by ventilation.