I am compiling some materials on science driven guidelines for how to decide if and how to keep open and/or reopen schools in the face of COVID19. Here are some I have compiled that I seem to be useful. I would love other examples. (Updated 12/21 at 3 PM) National Academy of Sciences Reopening K-12 …
This one has been getting a lot of popular media attention… and really the title says it all “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea”. This study describes a transmission that took place at over 20 feet in only 5 minutes… both problematic considering the standard …
More wastewater sampling work, “Wastewater Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as a Predictive Metric of Positivity Rate for a Major Metropolis“. This one is a larger-scale study in a big city that found wastewater spikes in SARS-CoV-2 to present clinical positives by 2 weeks which is a huge lead time and of major significance for getting a …
A nice article by several of our colleagues from the MoBE project days. “Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Signal in a Home with COVID-19 Positive Occupants” does just what it says in the tile, looks at the signal from SARS-CoV-2 in a home… long after the occupants were determined positive. They sampled two months after the …
This is a bit more up our alley! “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance” doesn’t look directly at the virus but at the changes in the wastewater microbiome that might proceed detection of SARS-CoV-2. The authors claim to observe such changes which could potentially be really useful. We already know that wastewater …
A break from wastewater articles! “Longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces in a community setting“. There’s not actually been a ton of articles about fomites recently… this appears less and less likely to be a source of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 although we certainly wouldn’t want to rule it out. It is, after all, …
Getting harder to keep up with all the wastewater articles related to SARS-CoV-2. It’s becoming more and more common as a method of environmental surveillance for the virus. And yes, this article, Tracking SARS-CoV-2 RNA through the wastewater treatment process, came out a month ago… I’ve been too busy working on the pandemic to blog …
Here’s an article about a superspreader event… which of course falls under the rubric of the microbiology of the built environment, because all these large transmission events happen indoors! “Community Outbreak Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Bus Riders in Eastern China” describes… well like it says in the title. Good evidence for airborne spread here, …
More wastewater surveillance coming out. Not sure about the title on this one since there’s been a number of publications on wastewater detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the US but maybe this title was correct when they submitted this paper “First detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in North America: A study in Louisiana, USA“. Pretty …
Very nice and cleanly done study here, “Air and Environmental Contamination Caused by COVID-19 Patients: a Multi-Center Study” is a very straightforward look at the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in a healthcare setting… without aerosol generating procedures being part of the pictures. They looked at the air (all negative) and a bunch of surfaces (27% positive …