Orla Hegarty
@Orla_Hegarty
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Architect Asst Professor @UCDDublin @UCDArch FRIAI RIBA ARB opinions my own #Housing #Architecture #Construction #CovidIsAirborne Orla-Hegarty @sp éirghorm
Dublin City, Ireland
Joined June 2013
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Pinned Tweet
[Thread] a short story about pandemic misinformation & biased reporting
On 1 April 2021 I was contacted by a newspaper journalist.. 1/
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“Cambridge doctors gobsmacked by air filter's effect on Covid”
..we have all the tools to stop airborne infection spread in hospitals, care homes, schools & workplaces. They’re cheap, low-tech & very effective
It’s a political choice not to use them yet
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1840 “wound infection is inevitable, clean hands won’t work”
1850 “cholera is inevitable, clean water won’t work”
1920 “salmonella is inevitable, refrigerating food won’t work”
2023 “COVID-19, flu, RSV, TB, chicken pox, measles are inevitable.. clean air won’t work (not true)
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In Ireland half of the people who died from
#Covid19
were infected in fewer than 400 buildings
Ireland has >2,500,000 buildings
Risk is about buildings, not behaviour
Spread is about clusters, not contacts
Control is about eliminating the hot spots (pic:
@mdc_martinus
)
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🇮🇪✈️ One flight into Ireland
💺 only 17% of seats filled
🦠 🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠13 cases on board
🦠 🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠 46 further cases
🏥🏥🏥🏥🏥🏥 6 HSE regions impacted
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[Thread] Chicago didn’t have a second wave of Spanish Flu.. so what did they do, & how did the city re-open when there was no vaccine?
#Ventilation
#COVID19
1/
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Stop calling public safety a “restriction”
Nobody calls traffic lights, road signs or seatbelts a “restriction” or a “drag on the economy” or “fear-mongering”
Clean air isn’t a restriction, it’s a liberation. Let everyone breath freely in hospitals, schools & public transport
No return to restrictions this winter despite surge in Covid cases, says Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
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A DIY air purifier that costs under $100 to make is taking America’s classrooms by storm
(yes it works, yes it’s independently tested.. & yes filtration has been shown to reduce school absences)
Less disease = more education
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Two Dublin pharmacies yesterday
5 antigen tests €13.50 (€2.70 each)
5 antigen tests €24.95 (€4.99 each)
Profiteering from a public health crisis is unconscionable.. people with limited means are already disproportionately bearing the brunt of the pandemic
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#Covid19
Reopening does not mean the pandemic is over,
..it just means they now have space for you in ICU. Take care
😷Mask 🪟💨Air ↔️Distance
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We cannot individually assess the risk of infection from poor indoor air quality
Just as we cannot individually assess food safety in restaurants, or fire safety in cinemas, or aviation safety on flights
These are in the control of others & are regulated for our health & safety
@hans_kluge
This means assessing our own level of risk and our risk to others at every step of our days. And then apply the protective measures that matter most to reduce the chances of catching or spreading respiratory infections.
@hans_kluge
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Gentle reminder to lobbyists, political commentators & media.. when the number of patients in ICU reduces it does not always mean they recovered & went home. Many families are grieving 🕯
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The next time I hear ‘public housing doesn’t work’, I’m playing this. (Yes, I hear it a lot, despite all of the research that says otherwise)
#LoveDublin
#UpTheFlats
@conormurray_18
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Measles is airborne
Clean air in schools help stop the spread of Measles
Clean air also stops the spread of colds, Flu, Covid-19, TB, Chickenpox & more
Clean air also means less pollution & dust, which reduces asthma & allergies
Measles is a highly infectious viral illness. Measles starts with cold-like symptoms that develop about 10 days after you get infected. You will then get a measles rash a few days later. The illness usually lasts 7 to 10 days.
For more information on symptoms, how to treat…
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🤥2020 Children aren’t vectors
🤥2021 Schools are safe
🤥2022 Infection gives immunity
2023 “Parents warned majority of children who tested positive for Covid-19 could suffer blood vessel damage” …& these research findings have been known since 2020
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Note the people saying “it’s all ok, sit tight” are same people who said in Nov “schools are safe”.. & in Sept “pandemic is over”.. & in July “no precautions needed”.. & in May “vaccines solve everything”.. & who claimed the crisis had passed in June 2020..Nov 2020.. Aug 2021
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#Covid19
“Asymptomatic man walks into a bar. In an hour he exhales 600 litres of air containing 720,000 copies of the virus’
“Hegarty & Morawska share deep frustration that it has taken so long for world to wake up to importance of aerating indoor spaces”
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#Covid19
Can we please stop talking about indoor dining & focus on schools & childcare…
In 5 weeks schools will be back
With thousands of new cases/day
And Delta variant that’s twice as transmissible
In a colder season
And there is no protection plan for 1 million children
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🇮🇪 😷 🏥 Delighted to hear reports from hospitals this morning that all staff are to be provided with FFP /N95 respirator masks from today 👏🏻
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🫡 To all the teachers who sat with children in cold classrooms —with windows open to let the virus out— in order to keep your community safer
The results are in.. you definitely made a difference
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Hospital infection study shows use of FFP3 respirator masks at Addenbrooke’s ‘may have cut ward-based infection to zero’ (yes ZERO)
Surgical masks do not stop infection
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“advice from « experts » is that fresh air circulating with windows open is the way to go (not HEPA filtration)”
-Min for Health recommending schools open all windows in winter in 5-10°C
Any international « experts » care to comment on this advice?
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A vaccine is like wearing Factor 50
It does not turn off the sun, so you still need to limit your exposure
#COVID19
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Covid-19 gathers like smoke- UK government health information
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Anyone watching
#COVID19
needs to pay very close attention to what’s unfolding in Brazil, in India, & parts of Canada, especially among the young. This is not over.
😷Mask 🪟🌬 Air ↔️Distance
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Spanish Flu, 1920
*do not stand close to another person when conversing
*avoid poorly ventilated rooms & see that living & sleeping quarters are well ventilated
*avoid crowds, especially within doors
*spend as much time as possible in the open
*dress warmly
(USA Nat Archive)
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🦠“if we mask now, we’ll have to mask forever” is legitimate concern of healthcare workers
But it’s like saying “I’m tired of boiling water, I’ll take my chances with e-coli”
Masks & boil-water-notices are temporary measure while we fix infrastructure
Push for a clean air fix
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Warm welcome to people on Twitter showing concern now about children’s mental health, education, socialisation & speech development
You were very quiet when I was tweeting about children in homeless hubs, hotel rooms & direct provision. Better late than never. Let’s keep going👍🏻
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Polio was low risk, mild disease in children, & few died
But thousands had life-long health impairment & many developed post-polio syndrome later in life
Consequences of abject govt failure to prevent mass infection may be with this generation for decades
It won’t be forgotten
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[Thread] Better than sprawl, better than high rise. Housing communities that are sustainable, affordable & beautiful places to live.
Norwich, UK. Award winning, low energy, low build cost, high density social housing 1/
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Explainer: Why the changes to Irish fire regs for ‘open-plan flats’ put lives at risk
(could be a long thread, please bear with me, this is ~most critically important~ issue for discussions about our future housing, & it’s not getting any attention 1/
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a simple rule, use 2 out of 3
🌳Outside ↔️Distance 😷Mask
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It took decades for doctors to accept handwashing* stops wound infection..& years for them to accept clean water** stops cholera
Now 4 years of denial that clean air stops Covid-19 spread. Will measles outbreaks change it?
HT *Dr Ignaz Semmelweiss 1818-65
**Dr John Snow 1813-58
🚨 Doctors!
Please put plug-in HEPA filtration in waiting rooms, clinics & surgeries.. it’s cheap & effective
Measles is airborne, it can fill a room & linger for hours .. air filtration catches all airborne pathogens including Measles, Covid, colds, Flu, RSV, TB, chickenpox…
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Up to 4,900 homes on Airbnb in Dublin available (without tourists), + 000s more as students go online/leave city.. this will likely solve the rental crisis & bring down rents. Landlords would be wise to keep the tenants they’ve got (
@RobCross247
Jan ‘20)
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“Before face masks upgrade, majority of HCW infections on covid-19 wards were likely from exposure to patients.
Once FFP3 respirators introduced, cases from exposure on wards dropped dramatically.. suggests FFP3 respirators may cut infection to zero”
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“Hong Kong had zero deaths in care homes from Covid-19”
“Singapore & South Korea infection control based not on influenza [HAND-WASHING] but Sars [CLEAN AIR]”
Ireland is STILL failing in 2023 with ineffective hand-washing precautions. Covid is airborne
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When I hear “we can’t afford clean indoor air”, I remember that in my career I’ve heard “we can’t afford..
*double glazing
*access for disabilities
*insulation
*downstairs toilets
*smoke detectors
..& ~all~ are standard now
It’s a choice. Clean air is cheap & readily achievable
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..here are the public health measures that Chicago took on the autumn of 2018
‘open window ventilation in all school rooms.. pupils warmly dressed.. daily check on pupils & absentees in schools.. use of masks.. landlords required to heat homes.. ’ 2/ …
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‼️ “Cochrane Review” that supposedly showed masks aren’t effective? Wrong
“Out of the 78 papers analyzed in the review, only two actually studied masking during Covid-19 pandemic. And both of those found that MASKS DID PROTECT wearers from Covid-19”
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🔥 Finally!.. an update from World Health Organisation confirming that
#COVIDisAirborne
Long past time for other institutions & governments to catch up with the science
Understanding transmission is key to effective prevention
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‘People are truly baffled as how they managed to catch it.. they wore a mask, distanced & followed official guidelines
This is not problem of ignorance or denial but lack of education– & that, like so much else during this pandemic, is fault of government’
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📺 📻 📰 🎤 Heads up to media reporting Measles
Ask public health people ~how~ it is transmitted.. & they’ll likely explain airborne transmission to you
Exactly the same airborne transmission that many have been denying is even possible for Covid-19 for the last 4 years
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“Good ventilation reduces the risk of COVID.
The risk of becoming infected with COVID is highest in crowded & poorly ventilated spaces” -New Zealand public health information
@covid19nz
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[Thread] Learning from
#COVID19
#superspread
🇺🇸USA Skagit Choir practice: 1 person with mild symptoms, 2.5-hours indoors, 50 infected, 2 deaths
“you can be inhaling what someone else exhaled even if they are far away from you” 1/
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#Housing
we don’t need 30-40,000 ‘investor’ apartments that rent for €2,000 & sell for €500,000
We do need tens of thousands of decent family homes that rent for €1,000 &
sell for €250,000
It’s possible with a mix of innovation in finance, design, procurement, & tenure
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#Covid19
Children & managing class outbreaks
🇫🇷 France: full class isolate
🇮🇹 Italy: full class isolate
🇪🇸Spain: full class isolate
🇮🇪 Ireland: isolation of ‘close contacts’ if not vaccinated
🏴 England: no isolation of any under 18s for any reason
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⚠️ Reminder: I have zero tolerance policy for anti-mask or anyone minimising risk to children. Immediate block
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The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic didn’t magically disappear. It was fought hard
[Thread] Chicago didn’t have a second wave of Spanish Flu.. so what did they do, & how did the city re-open when there was no vaccine?
#Ventilation
#COVID19
1/
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Six days in the life of UK Health Secretary: packed stadium.. indoor visit to a care home.. chess with a child, no mask ..& positive test for
#Covid19
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.. at the time I tried to correct the record /19
“it’s a fast moving situation & media are under pressure... but we all have ethical responsibilities when speaking publicly in a health emergency”
‘1 in 1,000 cases traced to outdoor transmission’ has now been reported around the world as research from Ireland
To correct record: this isn’t a research study & isn’t valid
Here’s why... 1/
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🇮🇪 Code of Practice for Indoor Air Quality is now regulated in Ireland
All employers are legally obliged to conduct risk assessments & implement control measures to address indoor air quality,
#ventilation
& filtration in the workplace
@TheHSA
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Clean air stops spread of Wuhan
Clean air stops spread of Alpha
Clean air stops spread of Beta
Clean air stops spread of Delta
Clean air stops spread of Nu
Clean air stops spread of Omicron
Clean air stops spread of EVERY future variant
#Omicron
#OmicronIsAirborne
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..who understood airborne disease & spread in buildings
‘the most important factor in prevention is the air that we breath’
‘buildings merit earnest study & attention in a program of real & effective work in preventing the spread of disease’ 7/
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🚨 Doctors!
Please put plug-in HEPA filtration in waiting rooms, clinics & surgeries.. it’s cheap & effective
Measles is airborne, it can fill a room & linger for hours .. air filtration catches all airborne pathogens including Measles, Covid, colds, Flu, RSV, TB, chickenpox…
📣Clear and important advice from Dr Niall Conroy Consultant in Public Health Medicine
@NICU_doc_salone
Listen to him explain in simple terms what to do if you are a parent or guardian of a child and are worried about measles or symptoms of measles.
#KeepUpToDate
#VaccinesWork
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‘Dublin, where there are an estimated 9,400 Airbnb apartments’
.. if correct, that’s the housing crisis solved once viewings re-open
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🇬🇧 UK
#Covid19
Air filters on Addenbrooke’s wards *removed nearly all traces of airborne Covid-19 virus*, Cambridge University Hospitals study shows’
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Stop talking about “people who are at risk”
“with reinfection, your chance of serious issues such as diabetes, mental health issues & chronic fatigue goes up” -New Zealand public health
“People who are at risk” is everyone who has already had Covid
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‘There is no logical argument for allowing the spread of COVID-19 in healthcare settings. There is literally no excuse for this bizarre, unscientific mistreatment of patients other than gross incompetence, institutional negligence, and systemic ableism’
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Infection is being actively marketed now. People are being encouraged to put their health in danger, risks are being minimised & misinformation is being promoted. This is unconscionable & unethical in my view
Anyone who thinks it’s over just hasn’t been paying proper attention
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..the story was published:
“Just one confirmed case of Covid-19 in every thousand is traced to outdoor transmission *new figures reveal* (they didn’t).. Of 232,164 cases recorded 262 were as a result of outdoor transmission, representing 0.1 per cent of the total” 5/
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(I can’t say this strongly enough)
Ireland is heading for catastrophic Nov with an ill-conceived political plan that has no basis in reality, no scientific research, & no risk assessment
Pretending pandemic is over & failing to take precautions will cost many lives & livelihoods
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so the Spanish Flu epidemic in Chicago pandemic was fought on the ground with building inspectors.. who measured, targeted & eliminated actual public health risks in actual buildings
‘while the work involved was enormous, the results obtained outweighed the difficulties’ /13
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..’closure of dance halls, theatres, restaurants in order to keep schools open .. ventilation of public transport.. public health doctors & nurses’ 4/
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..they had very detailed ventilation standards & buildings were inspected.. including measuring air temperature, humidity, velocity, dust particles &.. CO2 (carbon dioxide) monitoring was used to catch inadequate ventilation 9/
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“In the surge ward, during first week prior to air filter being activated, researchers were able to detect SARS-CoV-2 on all sampling days. Once air filter was switched on & run continuously, team were unable to detect SARS-CoV-2 on any of 5 testing days”
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🏫 As schools go back this week remember
70% of household infection started with a child
“children were important viral vectors in households, particularly when school was in session”
Almost 1 million people in Ireland will go back school this week
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Covid is spread by coughing, sneezing, singing, talking & just by breathing
If you inhale an infectious particle you can become infected- New Zealand public health information
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..’isolation & quarantine.. home nursing provided (see my thread on home nursing).. churches required to improve ventilation.. 150 city health officers on full time service’ 3/
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‘Market prices are no longer set by what average earners can afford to pay back on a 25-30 year mortgage, but by what an investment asset can generate through high market rents over 50-60 years. Unsurprisingly, market prices have doubled’
@IrishTimesOpEd
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Mass infection of children has no “benefit” they get repeated infection, not immunity
Uncontrolled spread does not build a “wall of immunity”, it’s a nonsense.
Govt failure to protect children is damaging children’s health, disrupting their education & keeping parents off work
3 weeks 4 days after her first covid infection and my two year old has it again. Confirmed as a new infection by pcr. Tests below show night one and then the next morning. If we lift restrictions this is just going to be the normal.
#covid
@TigressEllie
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.. then in USA in The New York Times, again as “a study from Ireland”:
“study from Ireland, which seems to have been more precise about the definition of outdoors, put the share of such transmission at 0.1 percent” 7/
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“transparent visors” being advised as alternative to masks on
@drivetimerte
Visors are no protection from breathing infected air. Please give accurate & supportive public health advice
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the had boots on the ground, ‘one man for every 100,000 of population’ & a regime of regulating, inspecting, investigating & enforcing ventilation standards in buildings for public health 8/
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🌹 💕 Rose are Red
Violets are Blue
If you want your old life back
…Clean Air 2022
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within days it was picked up internationally as “a study”, first in UK:
‘Just one coronavirus infection in every thousand cases occurs outdoors, according to contract tracing data from Ireland” 6/
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..I replied with comment about spread, & some international research
I said that HSPC **are not gathering data** that would allow them to quantify indoor/outdoor transmission & that **information available couldn’t be used to demonstrate indoor/outdoor transmission** 4/
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“
#Covid19
is a preventable disease, not a medical mystery.. there are no acceptable deaths”
“In the words of Florence Nightingale, infection is not inevitable, but simply the result of carelessness or ignorance”
My letter in
@IrishTimes
today
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Radio today “Cases have never been higher, do you think this is a sign pandemic is coming to an end?”
Have we collectively lost our minds?
Ireland had highest cases in the world
Mass infection doesn’t end a pandemic, it cripples the population & risks generating new variants
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One person in one hour breathes out 600 litres of air, which can contain 720,000 copies of the virus
Most spread is from people with no symptoms (or none yet)
We cannot control
#Covid19
until people know how it spreads & how to stop it (image
@eerdincus
)
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(personal view)
We would not be in lockdown if the media gave as much attention to the science of prevention as they give to the science of vaccines
Pandemic is spreading in the air in buildings & vehicles. We have knowledge & tools to prevent transmission & aren’t using them
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New followers, full disclosure:
I’m not scaremongering
I have a life, thanks
I wouldn’t look better without a mask & the ‘rag’ doesn’t have e-coli
I’m not anti-vax or pro-lockdown
I’m not part of a global conspiracy
Yes, a walk would help me lose a few pounds (but hey, lockdown)
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..& despite fact Chief Clinical Officer had earlier said it was “misleading data”
“data showing number of cases traced to outdoor settings are “misleading” because figures do not include transmission from activities linked to outdoor gatherings” 11/
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If you were to design a way to infect people quickly this would be it. This is not outdoor dining, it’s indoor dining on steroids
#Covid19
How ridiculous is this?
"Outdoor" dining pods proposed for Killarney.
These pods simply recreate a high risk indoor environment for the occupants.
We need to knock this on the head before it gains popularity.
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In 1850 clean air in schools to prevent disease spread was accepted.. & adopted for more than a century
In 2024 clean air in schools is still being denied, challenged & resisted in the fifth year of an airborne pandemic & during a live airborne measles outbreak
Ventilation in schools, 1850:
‘Let is suppose the case of a schoolroom containing 10,000 cubic feet (50 x 20 x 10’)* of perfectly pure air with 200 pupils. To each of them will be allowed 10 cubic feet of air per minute...’. 1/
*283m3 (15 x 6 x 3m)
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#Covid19
Imagine food-borne disease & restaurants open without checking food
Imagine water-borne disease & pubs open without checking water
Imagine an airborne pandemic & people gathering with no check of infected air? And denial it’s even needed.. after what happened last Dec?
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..the journalist attached the reply received from HSPC (who collect Covid data)
It DID NOT say 1 in 1,000 cases
It gave very limited data about *42 outbreaks* investigated by HSE
It reads as someone being helpful guessing at what might be outdoors (construction, sport etc) 2/
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#Covid19
is caught indoors. It spread in air, not hands
In stale air:
🦠2m distance is not safe (8m in meat plant, Germany, 6m in restaurant, Korea)
🦠15 mins is not safe (<5 mins prison, USA)
🧫 Stale indoor air is the root of this pandemic. It is measurable & preventable
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Not everything is Covid.. but maybe we need to talk about the possibility that “brain fog” & long Covid are affecting tens of thousands of drivers, cyclists & pedestrians?
Road deaths were up 19% in 2023
A seventh person has been sadly killed on Irish roads.
Seven lives lost in the first five days of this new year - three people today.
We need you to help us keep road users safe by driving carefully and without distraction.
Please share this message among those you know.
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In parallel, Chicago rolled out home nursing to care for patients ~&~ to prevent disease spread in the community & within homes, using
#ventilation
to prevent disease spread /14
[Thread]
#COVID19
Break the Chain at the
Weakest Link
~Open the Windows~
What can we learn about ventilation & disease control from 1920 nursing manual? 1/
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“Sick of your kids being sick? Clean air in schools may be the answer”
Co-written with
@j_corey02
in
@irishexaminer
today
🧵of links to research mentioned & more information for parents & teachers
#Schools
#EdChat
#EdChatIE
1/
Opinion: Sick of your kids being sick? Clean air in schools may be the answer
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