Risks of aerosol transmission of COVID-19 in practice

EyePod: The optometry podcast

In this episode, Daniel has a fascinating conversation with Professor Jose-Luis Jimenez, aerosol expert and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.

In July last year, Professor Jimenez was one of 239 experts in multiple scientific fields who signed an open letter to the CDC and WHO (1) urging them to recognise inhalation as the main mode of transmission of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

Daniel and Professor Jimenez’s conversation covers the difference between droplet and aerosol transmission, why it matters and how to reduce the spread, plus Jose’s publicly available modelling tool, which you can use to estimate the transmission risk in your practice (2).

Professor Jimenez shares his own personal recommendations on specific mask types. The College continues to align its views and recommendations on masks with those of Public Health England.

Resources mentioned

1. It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/71/9/2311/5867798

2. Aerosol Transmission Estimator Tool - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16K1OQkLD4BjgBdO8ePj6ytf-RpPMlJ6aXFg3PrIQBbQ/edit#gid=519189277

3. Indicators for Risk of Airborne Transmission in Shared Indoor Environments and their application to COVID-19 Outbreaks - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.21.21255898v1

4. Exhaled CO2 as a COVID-19 Infection Risk Proxy for Different Indoor Environments and Activities - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00183

5. Dismantling myths on the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195670121000074