Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Airborne Transmission
Science Rejected, Lives Lost. Can Society Do Better?
Lidia Morawska (Queensland University of Technology)
William Bahnfleth (The Pennsylvania State University)
P.M. Bluyssen (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Atze Boerstra (REHVA)
Giorgio Buonanno (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio)
Stephanie J. Dancer (Edinburgh Napier University)
Andres Floto (University of Cambridge)
Francesco Franchimon (Franchimon ICM)
Jaap Hogeling (ISSO)
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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.
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