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; Hogeling, Jaap; Isaxon, Christina; Jimenez, Jose L.; Kurnitski, Jarek; Li, Yuguo; Loomans, Marcel; Marks, Guy; Marr, Linsey C.; Mazzarella, Livio; Melikov, Arsen Krikor; Miller, Shelly; Milton, Donald K.; Nazaroff, William; Nielsen, Peter V.; Noakes, Catherine; Peccia, Jordan; Querol, Xavier; Sekhar, Chandra; Seppänen, Olli; Tanabe, Shin-ichi; Tellier, Raymond; Wai, Tham Kwok; Wargocki, Pawel; Wierzbicka, Aneta

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.

Citation

Morawska, L., Bahnfleth, W., Bluyssen, P. M., Boerstra, A., Buonanno, G., Dancer, S. J., …Wierzbicka, A. (2023). COVID-19 and Airborne Transmission: Science Rejected, Lives Lost. Can Society Do Better?. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 76(10), 1854-1859. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad068

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 30, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 10, 2023
• Publication Date: May 15, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 3, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 3, 2023
• Journal: Clinical Infectious Diseases
• Print ISSN: 1058-4838
• Electronic ISSN: 1537-6591
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 76
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 1854-1859
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad068
• Keywords: airborne transmission, airborne infection spread, coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 virus