U.S. public health officials have finally revised existing public guidance about the novel coronavirus, acknowledging for the first time that people can get infected by inhaling aerosolized particles hanging in the air in addition to “direct splashes or sprays” from an infected person directly onto a mucus membrane, The New York Times reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now warn that airborne transmission is a vector for contagion, warning for the first time that even staying six feet away from others may not be enough. “C.D.C. has now caught up to the latest scientific evidence, and they’ve gotten rid of some old problematic terms and thinking about how transmission occurs,” Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech, told the paper. University of Maryland aerosol scientist Donald Milton said there should be a “better focus on good respirators” for those forced to work in close quarters. “A surgical mask, even if it’s tucked in on the edges, is still not really going to give you enough protection if you’re in a meatpacking plant elbow to elbow all day long with other people,” he said.
