May 10, 2020
One of the peculiar benefits of a crisis is that our very talented scientific community springs into action, doing fine research in very short times.
This report includes the best of recent research, blended with the last 17 yrs of superb scientific work on exactly how COVID-19 is spread … and how to protect ourselves & our loved ones.
There’s good summary article, published by a decent biologist, that’s a pretty quick read … but as you read it, notice that the biologist-author is missing 4 key pieces.
The author’s 4 critical missing pieces:
1. Talking is the biggest generator of the highest-risk, most infectious COVID-19 fine aerosols. Notice that just 5 minutes of talking in an indoor space contaminates the area with highly-contagious invisible mists of much higher levels of the nastiest COVID-contaminated fine aerosols than the author reports as a problem.
Notice that just 5 minutes of normal talking emits 26 COVID-coughs worth of the nastiest COVID-aerosol … while loud talking emits 104 COVID-coughs worth of the most-infectious, highest-risk fine aerosols* ….
*The nastiest COVID aerosols are less than 5 um diameter … with special focus on the 2.5 um size range aerosols that evade (get around & through) most masks … smaller than 3 um aerosols … the most easily inhaled particles, inspired with every breath … including those nastiest 2.5 um COVID aerosols get stuck deep in out throats & lungs..
Infected people talking … indoors … especially in public spaces … need to wear superb medical grade masks to protect others from their talking-emitted highly infectious COVID aerosols.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38808-z
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The second critical piece that the author is missing
Those highest-risk, most-infectious COVID fine aerosols float & swirl & circulate for another 4 – 5 hours in the room … invisibly slowly spreading out to 20 ft from the talker. …. This sounds terrifying … but dilution & masks are our friends.**
Notice that when we combine the results & facts from the 1’st research article, (see the Nature article above), combined with this article, we see that just 7 minutes of a loud talker, contaminates the indoor space around him with over highly-infectious 10,000 fine aerosols => equal to 104 COVID-coughs worth of the nastiest fine aerosols.
Then notice that the author (of the summary article above) points out that that it is believed that inhaling just 1000 of these highly-infectious aerosols are estimated to be enough to infect even a healthy person.
Also notice that the CDC knows these things … and have been quietly ordering US doctors & hospitals:
“In general, only essential personnel should enter the room of patients with COVID-19. … in full PPE protection “
“After discharge, terminal cleaning (of patient rooms) may be performed by only EVS personnel.
…. They should ~delay entry~ into the room ~ until a sufficient time has elapsed for enough air changes ~ (strong ventilation) ~ to remove infectious airborne particles. ~ ”
Conclusions?
We need EFFECTIVE useful approaches… NOW…
Note … Ordinary cloth masks are proven to NOT work … Home-made cheap masks … and other non-medical masks do NOT work … because they can leak over ~100 COVID-coughs ~ worth of the highest risk, most-infectious aerosols… with every breath we inhale.
We & our loved ones need superb medical-grade masks now… with N99 to N100 filtering protection …
Check out TalkingAerosols.com ( https://talkingaerosols.com/ ) for details on some superb … washable 70 times .. teflon-treated … special surgical barrier cloth … medical-grade masks …
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The last missing points?
The quality of your mask makes a huge difference … Think medical grade masks … versus flat masks (modestly sealing) … versus homemade masks.
Notice that most masks leak 35% – 40% of those nastiest fine aerosols … while the home-made masks typically leak 70%.
This gives the non-medical grade masked people standing just outside the 6 ft “Social Distancing” radius of the COVID infected loud talker … get a dose of 1 full COVID cough of the nastiest fine aerosols from just 5 minutes of breathing in the loud talker’s invisible highly-infectious aerosols.
and yes… This can happen in every Uber, every grocery store line, every bank line with every breath inhaling a COVID-cough aerosol equivalent contaminated air, through cheap masks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
**Time, Dilution and superb medical-grade MASKS are our friends …
When we step into the space where the infected-talker was talking, (like in the Uber) … or his spot in the tienda … we start inhaling his 10,000 most-infectious fine aerosols …
but his invisible mists of 10,000 of the most-infectious COVID fine aerosol linger indoors & only-slowly swirl-circulate out (indoors)… filling that “Social Distancing” 1.5 m distance … leaving an invisible cloud that can give us a 5 minute inhaled dose of 2 full COVID-coughs (due to uneven distributions).
But … as his infected invisible mists slowly swirl out even further … our inhaled doses of COVID’s nastiest aerosols fall dramatically.
Fortunately … even after 7 minutes of the loud-infected talker spewing the nastiest COVID-contaminated aerosols … when we increase the distance … increasing from Social Distance’s 1.5 m, instead to 3 m (10 ft) … then our inhaled dose falls dramatically to just 0.1 COVID-cough’s worth of highly-infectious aerosols inhaled by us …
Why is inhaling just 0.1 COVID-cough worth of aerosols important?
The gold standard of virology is a 1,000 fold reduction of significant risks.
Notice that following a 10 ft rule for distance, reduces that risk by 1,000 fold versus inhaling all the most infectious fine aerosols of a single cough.
= = = =
Why wear a superb mask?
Because we cannot see the nastiest invisible mists, left behind for hours, by the COVID-infected talker…. notice that a good superbly-sealing medical grade mask … reduces that inhaled dose of the nastiest COVID aerosols … to a harmless 0.02 COVID-cough dose of fine aerosols.
= = = =
Inside vs Outside … and the Benefits of SPRING-TIME !
Now do we see why New Yorkers … cooped-up inside over-crowded buildings … 10 – 15 people sharing a bathroom … crowded New Yorkers, stuck INSIDE, breathing all the bad re-circulated air … due to wintertime …
Do we now understand why New Yorkers have had the absolute WORST COVID-19 problems?
Now that it’s slowly becoming SPRING … we can all get OUTSIDE … We can get out of the immune-system compromising … dry-dry heated air … or get-out of the dry dry heavily air-conditioned air …
GET OUTSIDE, where even the slightest breezes rapidly dilute-out ALL COVID-aerosols.
GET OUTSIDE … where where Nature’s higher natural humidity keeps our critical first-defense mucous membranes nicely runny … because thin-runny mucous traps the nastiest most-infectious COVID fine aerosols, and our cilia ~ sweeper-cells ~ covering our lung & throat lining cells … are able to sweep the COVID-19 contaminated aerosols up out of our throat & lungs, to fall into the epiglottis … to be destroyed by our stomach acid.
and
Eating Enough Vitamin C to Keep Your Immune System at Peak Efficiency
During times of stress … and during Coronavirus spreading .. We need a daily consumption of 500 mg – 1000 mg. total of vitamin C … split into at least four (4) … 125 mg doses …. each about 4 hours apart.
Taking a single Vitamin C supplement pill in the morning just doesn’t work, because we pee out the breakfast Vitamin C dose, just 4 hrs after eating it.
500 mg – 1,000 Vit. C a day is necessary during stressful times to protect our already stress compromised immune system, intentionally eating higher levels of Vit. C throughout the day … to protect our highly-important immune compounds ~ our body’s best responses that fight Coronaviruses …
By taking enough Vit. C throughout the day, the Vitamin C acts as “body-guard” molecules throughout your body to protect critical antibodies & lymphokines, +plus protecting our Immune System defense cells: Macrophages, Killer-T Cells (T-Lymphocytes), Dendritic Cells, White Blood Cells (Basophils & Eosinophiles)
Vitamin C “body-guards” protect our key defensive immune-system components … freeing them to attack and destroy the Coronaviruses trapped in our mucous …
See this article to read what to eat … and how much … to get superb doses of Vitamin C.
https://yucalandia.com/2020/04/10/improved-coronavirus-covid-19-protection-by-consuming-vitamin-c/
= = = =
Now do we see how so many people on Cruse Ships … and on Aircraft Carriers .. get infected. .. and on airplanes … where the air is recirculated & pumped around us, over and over and over … ?
Yet … WITH a superb well-sealing medical-grade mask .. we inhale a harmless dose of just 0.002 COVID coughs by inhaling 5 minutes of contaminated-air when 10 ft from the infected loud-talker.
SO…. to reduce your risks to just 0.002 COVID coughs … for even 5 minutes of breathing in infected-indoor spaces
GET A GOOD medical-grade mask … that protects you on every inhalation.
😉
Dr. Steven Michael Fry
Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, Aerosol Science, Medical Laboratory – Measurement Science, Public Health & Environment
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Read on, MacDuff ! …
Surviving Yucatan 
Thank you for all these incredible articles, so thorough and thought provoking.