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the-pi-guy 5 days ago
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BFR said:

And don't get me going on the 6 ft. social distancing crap.

Fauci said it wasn’t his job to stop unproved 6-foot rule during pandemic

Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers Monday there was no scientific basis for the 6-foot social distancing rule during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but said it wasn’t his call to shut the idea down.

The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the rule was developed during the early days when researchers believed the virus was chiefly transmitted by droplets. It later became clear that it was aerosolized, which undercut the idea behind the distance rule.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jun/3/dr-anthony-fauci-said-it-wasnt-his-job-to-stop-unp/

Social distancing obviously works, the 6 feet in particular is somewhat arbitrary. 

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/06/21/g-s1-5705/coronavirus-faw-if-youre-still-trying-to-stay-covid-safe-does-the-6-food-rule-matter

"In the late 1800s, scientists asked people to rinse their mouths with bacteria (editor’s note: yuk) and then just … talk. Crazy!

And what happened? “They saw bacteria landing on plates up to a distance of about 6 feet away,” says Linsey Marr, an aerosols expert and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.

“But, if they waited longer — several hours -- to collect the plates, allowing time for respiratory particles to drift around the room and settle, they saw bacteria landing on plates much farther than 6 feet away," she adds.

So yeah, 6 feet is not a magic number for avoiding airborne pathogens.

It’s not like if you go one inch further you’re suddenly in a danger zone. It’s more like a speed limit, suggests Dr. Abraar Karan, a infectious disease fellow at Stanford University. “There’s no data to say 55 mph is significantly safer than 56. But you have to have a cutoff that’s reasonable.”"

"Why distance does still matter

Here’s the thing: Even with this revised understanding of the spread of COVID, the closer you are to the person with COVID, the higher your risk of catching it.

“As you get farther away from the infected person, aerosols become more diluted, so the chance of inhaling [particles] usually goes down with distance,” says Marr."