Why is wearing an N95 so effective, and wearing a blue surgical mask not very effective? Physics!

There’s a significant difference between a mask and a respirator. A surgical mask is just fancy fabric that catches, well, spit. An N95 has an electrostatic charge that grabs particles and holds them. Think about rubbing a balloon on your head and watching your hair stick to it. That’s the science working to keep viruses out of your lungs when you breathe, instead of letting them waltz right in.

https://whn.global/six-years-and-six-winters-without-getting-sick/

#COVID #COVID19 #MaskUp #CovidIsAirborne #airborneAware #N95

Parent: "The kids have been sick for weeks, they're probably not contagious any more."

Everyone else: "great!"

Me: "I'll just keep this  on thanks."

Parent: "But how will you eat?"

Me: "I can manage without snacking, don't worry!"

(very few days later)

Them: "I feel so sick, I can't even imagine going for a walk around the block. Brutal!"

Me: "doing OK over here - get well soon!" (privately thanking the mercies that the respirator seal seems to have been good enough)

#N95 #N95sSaveLives #respirator #COVIDisAirborne #AirborneAware #CovidCompetent #flu #influenza

A recent common cold may nearly halve risk of COVID-19, study suggests

So Covid-Competent folks - this is going to land different in different quarters.

• The previously evidence-supported paradigm/metaphor "the immune system is a candle not a muscle" might need to be abandoned for a third, more nuanced position[+]
• Of course there's the need to check the paper itself, and if it's solid, to replicate / validate, but beyond that.
• Folks with immune dysregulation can't all just catch rhinoviruses all the time to keep the system active.

[+] probably approximately: "microbes vary:

• some are overwhelmingly beneficial, eg. in our gut;
• some have mixed costs and benefits like rhinovirus or conditions when they become pathological like candida, and
• some basically only have costs like influenza(?), SARS1 and SARS2, measles"

re: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/recent-common-cold-may-nearly-halve-risk-covid-19-study-suggests

#COVID #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #CovidCompetent #AirborneAware #rhinovirus #paradigmshift

in this week's COVID-19 roundup from @ducky includes highlights like:

paper from Germany found that 21% of masters’ athletes (median age in the high 50s) had Long COVID. The prevalence did not differ by sex, athletic specialties, training load, or prior competition level. Long COVID can happen to healthy, fit people!

(emphasis hers)

from market vendors who self medicated:
taking aspirin increased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 134%;
taking vitamin C decreased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 56%.
Meanwhile, not getting a 💉 COVID-19 booster increased their risk by 238%.

and

for immunocompromised people, taking Paxlovid for 10 or 15 days instead of five days didn’t make a whit of difference.

summaries of more papers, and citations for it all, at https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2025/07/19/2025-07-19-general/

#COVID19 #COVID #SARSCoV2 #Pandemic #CovidIsNotOver #AirborneAware #CovidCompetent

Edit: @ABScientist shared https://ccnse.ca/sites/default/files/Fomites%20and%20COVID-19%20March%2022%20final%20in%20template-revised.pdf !

hey Covid-Competent, well-informed folks! I have a favour to ask!

has anyone bookmarked a good reference for what % of SARS-CoV-2 cases are due to fomite transmission?

the US CDC was at one point saying:

each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection [1]

but that's not a % of infections, it's per contact with contaminated surface. That's supported a few ways, eg. by a sampling that included counting touchpoints:

The estimated risk of infection from touching a contaminated surface was low (less than 5 in 10,000) by quantitative microbial risk assessment [2]

but that study didn't actually culture virus, they checked RNA levels and counted touches (and again, is per contaminated touch, not per case)

Try as I might, I can't actually find a grounded estimate of how many actual infections have been fomite-driven at any point in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

[1] https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7927285/

@askazero

#SARSCoV2 #COVID #COVID19 #COVIDIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCompetent #AirborneAware

In 1987 volunteers were exposed to rhinovirus ("common cold") either by sharing air, or by sharing heavily contaminated objects.[2]

Most of the people who shared air with an infected person got sick.

None of the people who handled the heavily contaminated objects (and touched their faces!) got sick. And:

5/8 donor hands yielded culturable RV-A16 virus, while none of the recipient’s hands did [1]

[1] https://virologydownunder.com/rhinovirus-rv-transmission-by-aerosol-does-it-happen-or-is-transmission-solely-by-hand-contact-and-self-inoculation/
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=J+Infect+Dis+156(3)%3A442-448

h/t @mackayim2022 via https://mastodon.social/@mackayim2022/114775415171464977

#CovidIsAirborne #AirborneAware #SARSCoV2 #rhinovirus