During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public health authorities promoted hand-washing and maintaining six feet of distance, with the idea that SARS-CoV-2 was spread primarily in relatively large respiratory droplets that soon fell from the air after being exhaled, potentially contaminating surfaces. But epidemiological and animal studies soon pointed to the importance of smaller, airborne droplets known as aerosols in transmission. By now, the evidence is overwhelming, and COVID-19 is acknowledged by most experts as an airborne disease.
The debate, though, does not seem to be settled. There are still a few scientists who, even while they acknowledge that airborne transmission is possible, claim that infection by large droplets or via surfaces could also be responsible for the bulk of cases. Additionally, in some cases health policy has been slow to catch up to the state of knowledge around the ability of aerosols to transmit SARS-CoV-2.
Scientists ...
