March 29, 2020
Why have CDC & WHO been unable to control the spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus disease?
Ironically, the cause of the real problem (roughly 95% of cases) has been know for the last 3 months by scientists …
The real threat is airborne floating aerosols… from talking. Our vocal cords vibrate vigorously when we talk … flipping off 100’s to 10,000’s of tiny tiny fine aerosol droplets (1 um & smaller) … go out our mouths … and float in the air … highly infectious … for at least 3 hours when trapped inside rooms…
This is not the problem:
People talking, without tight-fitting medical grade masks, emitting over 104 COVID coughs worth of fine aerosols, by talking loudly for just 5 minutes … is the problem … especially when talking indoors, where the highly infectious COVID fine aerosols continue to float, swirl & circulate out to 30 ft, over the next 4 – 6 hours.
“Asymptomatic Spreaders”
Think: COVID-19 infected people, walking around talking … with no symptoms … while their throats are making the PEAK amounts of SARS-CoV-2 virus, during the last 2 days before symptoms.
For comparison …
1 cough = 60 highest risk – most infectious fine aerosol droplets
Talking Aloud for 5 minutes Creates Far Far More of the Highest Risk Aerosols:
Soft talking for just 5 minutes => 750 fine aerosol droplets
…. equals => 12 mouth-uncovered coughs
Normal talking for just 5 min. => 1500 fine aerosol droplets
… equals =>25 mouth-uncovered coughs
LOUD talking for 5 min. => 6,000 fine aerosol droplets
…equals => 100 uncovered coughs
Those 750 or 1500 or 6000 fine aerosol droplets float around inside rooms … for over 3 hours … remaining highly infectious the whole 3 hrs.
What Can we Do?
Wear a tight fitting medical grade mask** when inside public places… Need to eat or drink? => Have a fan or a breeze blowing fresh air across your face, to disperse ~ dilute~out fine aersols to safe levels …. Have conversations without masks when outside with 8 ft of Social Distancing, where the wind – breezes blow away your fine aerosols from talking (dilution) …
Then consider the special 1 in 50 people who are … “Super-emitters/Super-Spreaders”
The Super-Spreader people >= spew 15,000 fine aerosols in 5 minutes of LOUD talking
… equal to 250 uncovered-mouth coughs … in just 5 min of talking.
Think about all those invisible floating droplets … when walking into an OXXO minimart …. or in a combi bus … or any small enclosed space like a bank ATM room …. because the fine aerosol droplets slowly float, swirl & circulate between 6 meters – 9 meters … filling an OXXO … for the next 3 hours … with the worst, riskiest highly-contagious aerosols … so small that they are inhaled deeply into our throats – slipping around all masks with leaks…
Cloth masks … are proven to leak at least 40% to 70%, because it takes at least 12 layers of cloth (16 layers of cotton cloth) to equal just one good medical grade mask. … Do NOT trust a cloth mask.
**Note that good surgeons & Aerosol Scientists often wear 2 masks for the best protection, in the most critical situations. Wearing a flat, tight fitting good medical grade mask tight against your lips & nose acts like a condom, to protect an outer cup-cone N95 or KN95 mask. The combination of 2 masks seals much better around the nose & cheeks than one mask, giving full 99.9% levels of protection with both medical grade masks fit tightly.
Now do we understand why CDC’s & WHO’s advice to NOT wear masks… is exactly why Coronavirus has spread so quickly in the USA ?
Then, consider the Medical Doctor’s guess of “6 feet of Social Distancing”. The “6 ft Rule” only works if the talking-person’s invisible aerosols move out in all directions, evenly, at the same rates (like some diffuse mist or fog). Instead, scientists have proven for over 40 yrs that fine aerosols, when there are no fans or breezes, fine aerosols move exactly like cigarette smoke, moving outward in plumes – streams of concentrated aerosols … invisibly floating slowly out 8 ft to 10 ft, like forked-tongues, from the infected talker who is not wearing a medical-grade mask … until they disperse to safe-to-inhale levels at 8 – 10 ft when there is fresh air. That means the scientific rule is … 8 – 10 ft of Social Distancing, plus fresh air, when you have your mask off, like when eating or drinking.
Fortunately, all the facts above have been known by scientists, from 2 years ago to 16 yrs ago, by their reading ALL the very good scientific research done on SARS-CoV-1 & on other Coronaviruses.
Read the details at these websites:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38808-z
Aerosol emission and superemission during human speech increase with voice loudness
and
If you doubt these facts, consider the choir practice where just one COVID-infected singer, infected 60 other choir members … from them inhaling the sick-singers fine aerosols from talking & singing.
Touching things presents near infintesimal risks of transmitting COVID, because it takes roughly 1000 coronavirus particulates DEEP IN YOUR THROAT or Nasopharynx – which ONLY happens from inhaling aerosols …
Touching things … “fomite” or contacts as described by AS SEEN ON TV Medical Doctors is NOT THE PROBLEM … unless you collect an entire COVID sneeze’s goo and swab it deep into you throat. … It’s all about NOT inhaling COVID infected invisible fine aerosols.
~Stay safe ~
… Wear only a good medical grade mask … to protect yourself & others from COVID-19.
… If you don’t have a medical grade mask, like when eating or drinking, then stay 8 ft of Social Distancing from others (to allow the COVID fine aerosols to disperse to safe levels) … or have a fan blowing across your face to dilute the COVID aerosols from talking to safe low levels.
~ Stay well, stay informed, stay safe.
The Good Doctor Fry
Dr. Steven Michael Fry
Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, Aerosol Science, Measurement Science, Public Health & Environment
Read on, MacDuff …
**If you need a mask.. read the comments below.
Surviving Yucatan 
A well fitting cloth mask is certainly better than no mask at all.
We are selling high-quality, washable re-usable (20X – 30X ?) surgical-barrier cloth masks … where surgical barrier cloth is certified to block blood droplets, pathogens, microbes, bacteria etc.
We are working first to get these good medical-grade masks to the doctors & nurses at O’Horan & IMSS hospital … and there should be plenty of masks left over from helping them….
Then, we are putting them onto the very poorest elderlies in Merida living as residents in two of Merida’s poorest (crowded) old people’s homes (aka asilos).
The poor elderiles in the asilos do not have the privilige of “staying at home” out of harms way, but live in somewhat close contact with each other.
The profits we make on the for-profit sales of masks to at-risk people in the general public (like elderlies, diabetics, cardiac patients, patients with pulmonary issues) … those profits are being used to supply the same masks to Merida’s poorest people…
So … I am selling the medical-grade (washable) masks for $100 pesos each, that includes a $40 peso donation to Merida’s poorest people…
So, yes … I am selling special medical grade masks … and if anyone wants to add a donation to help Merida’s poorest people …
Steve
I totally agree 100% and I had that feeling right from the very start. I appreciate your work and would like to buy 5 masks. How do I do that? I am in centro merida near Santiago and I have a car. I have been indoors mostly this past month as I felt it was more than social distace required. I went out yesterday very early when sams opened for fresh goods. My mex cell number is 984 115 1422 its from when i lived in Playa del carmen. Kind regards🙏😇
Just now saw your reply … It’s now 15 days of 20 hr working per day…
. Call and set an appointment time to come get fitted for a mask: 999 908 41 49Calle 24 #203 D, x 27 y 29 Garcia Gineres.
Go to the Clinica de Merida parking garage, turn right onto C29, go 4 blks to c24… Turn left , we are the second house on the left… Flor de mayo tree out front .. & a big hedge…Small quantities of
Masks cost just $80 pesos each.
9999 08 41 49
TGDF
n Merida…. Call and set an appointment time to come get fitted for a mask: 999 908 41 49
Calle 24 #203 D, x 27 y 29 Garcia Gineres.
Go to the Clinica de Merida parking garage, turn right onto C29, go 4 blks to c24… Turn left , we are the second house on the left… Flor de mayo tree out front .. & a big hedge…Small quantities of Masks cost just $80 pesos each.
9999 08 41 49
Stephen Fry’s newest publication. Very real information.
________________________________
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Notice that just 5 minutes of talking by an “asymptomatic-spreader” … without a mask … emits as many of the highest risk, worst to inhale fine aerosols as 100 coughs …
😦
It’s the talkers without masks inside the small room stores … like OXXO… or tiendas or even little Boxito outlets.
I cannot figure out from this article how to order your masks. Very informative
In Merida…. Call and set an appointment time to come get fitted for a mask: 999 908 41 49
Calle 24 #203 D, x 27 y 29 Garcia Gineres.
Go to the Clinica de Merida parking garage, turn right onto C29, go 4 blks to c24… Turn left , we are the second house on the left… Flor de mayo tree out front .. & a big hedge…Small quantities of Masks cost just $80 pesos each.
9999 08 41 49
Send me an email…
Pricing & terms … for Fed Ex Shipping to US locations:
~ 1 – 6 masks = $12
~ 7 – 20 masks = $9 each
~ 21 – 49 masks = $7 each
~ 50 – 100 masks = $4 each.
Shipping & handling is now $12 per order
Include the total number of masks needed … and the number of smalls nosed masks (for Latinos, children and typical women) … medium nosed masks (for large nosed women and typical US Men) … and how many LARGE NOSED masks you need (like big Dutch noses, Gallic noses & Roman noses).
Our masks are gently hand-washable up to 70 times. …;) … which means they last 7 months if you use them only a few times a day.We also need your
Name
Shipping Address (No PO boxes)
Phone
and Email address
pay me by paypal… steven.m.fry@gmail.com
Good article, Steve. I’ve shared it with my students studying English, urging them to pass it along, with this advice:
Dear Students,
A friend here in Merida (PhD, physics) posted an article at his blog about wearing masks. (There is a typo > error de dedo : know > known, in first sentence) His observations, gleaned (cosechado; averiguado) from reading, indicate that much of the spread of this virus could be constrained (limitado; reduciado) by wearing masks to prevent the dispersal of aerosols circulated by TALKING.
Such masks need not be fancy! > Simply wearing a cloth or paper veil (llevete un velo; una cubreboca basica) with restraining bands would reduce most of the dispersal, thereby protecting others from our spray (espuma; atomizado de voz). This makes sense to me. Protect your friends, family, community! Wear a mask! Tell others! Prevention is key!
If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem! (Don’t be macho!) ¡Quédeten seguras! Stay safe by caring for the hive (colmena)!
Eric…
Be careful about adding to … or taking away … from a message.
The masks MUST be superb quality.
The tiny tiny 1 um & smaller fine aerosols fly & swirl around through even small gaps between the face & mask … which is why the … 95 … in your N95 mask says it is ONLY 95% efficient at stopping the nastiest most risky. highly infectuous fine aerosols of 1 um & less.
Because of the “95” in your N95 mask, your mask leaks 5% or more of those nasty particles… as the N95 masks shift … and are not very flexible.
4 Good Scientists have tested our mask, and they agree that our washable cloth masks are outperforming your inherently flawed N95 masks… since our masks are up over 99% filtering efficiency, due to their very special design & special material.
You are putting people at risk by inserting~substituting your personal Do-it-yourself (mistaken) instructions that “any mask will do” … “Such masks need not be fancy!”
😦
If they are working indoors with other people, they really do need a good mask…
Steve
and yes … I have 100 fine masks right now…. and will have another 400 in about 4 hours.
Hello,Steve, and thank you for your very instructive posts. My husband and I are older and definitely need a couple of your masks. How long do they last? How can we get them? We live in the north, across from the new hospital El Faro. And you?
The masks last roughly 7 months with light use & washing once a week… up to 70 washings.
In Merida…. Call and set an appointment time to come get fitted for a mask: 999 908 41 49Calle 24 #203 D, x 27 y 29 Garcia Gineres.
Go to the Clinica de Merida parking garage, turn right onto C29, go 4 blks to c24… Turn left , we are the second house on the left… Flor de mayo tree out front .. & a big hedge…
Small quantities of Masks cost just $80 pesos each.
9999 08 41 49
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