The World Health Organization and about 500 experts have come to a consensus about what it means when a disease travels through the air, a clarification that could improve public health messaging and clear up years of confusion.
In a new report, WHO says that airborne transmission means that infectious respiratory particles can become airborne regardless of droplet size or distance traveled. In the past this term was used only for certain pathogens like those that cause measles and are capable of floating long distances through the air.
When COVID first emerged, health officials were reluctant to use the term airborne transmission, a gap that led to confusion about how COVID spreads and guidance about protective measures.
The George Washington University has experts available to talk about the updated terminology and what it might mean in terms of public health messaging and standards for prevention such as the use of masks, respirators and air filters. To interview a GW expert please contact Kathy Fackelmann at [email protected]
Christopher Mores, professor of global health at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, is a virologist and can discuss the spread, risk and modes of transmission of diseases like COVID. He is the director of a high-containment research laboratory and has investigated outbreaks of Ebola, Zika and others. Mores works closely with the US government and industry on measures to contain or stop emerging disease threats.
David Michaels, professor of environmental and occupational health at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, is an epidemiologist and a nationally recognized expert on how COVID spread rapidly in certain workplaces during the early part of the pandemic. He has written about how laws and regulations in the US inadequately protected frontline workers from COVID. Michaels previously served as the administrator for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2009 to 2017, the longest serving administrator in the agency’s history.
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