I watched this video on Texags and also sent from a friend.

Among many points the doctor thereon makes is that only sustained, close proximity to a sick person can get you infected from that person's breathing. Thus at his hospital he says that the only time the care team wears N95 masks is when they are doing things that would cause the patient to cough or expel droplets. He says that other than that, everyone wears surgical masks, and no one is getting sick. He added that that was the procedure in Hong Kong and Singapore and no health providers got sick. (See minute 31.)

However, a new study from the U of Nebraska, not yet peer reviewed, seems to contradict the first doctor.

The new study says that air samples positive for the virus were found throughout the rooms of the infected and even outside in the halls.

What do doctors on this board think about this issue?

Is it safe to visit three or four family members in a large, open room, without getting in someone's face?

That's in a hospital setting. As the docs on here have pointed out, many medical interventions can aerosolize(sp) the virus (ventilator, BiPAP, CPAP, etc.) so it's no surprise you find that in a hospital. Out in public I think it is much less likely to be aerosolized, and is probably spread by contact or respiratory droplets. I'm not a doctor, slept @ holiday inn, yada yada

The study said (among other things) that "the data was suggestive" that the virus was shed by mildly ill people who were not coughing or feverish or receiving oxygen by nose. In other words, people who were not obviously ill or engaged in visibly expelling droplets (coughing, sneezing) shed the virus around the room simply by breathing.

The evidence also showed that the virus was also shed by people who were coughing and/or receiving oxygen, but that seems more obvious.

Saw this case of a choir practice where allegedly everybody stayed 6 feet apart and didn't touch and so on where the coronavirus was spread throughout most participants. Singing probably is projecting those droplets a lot more than regular talking but it is worth thinking about how readily it spread despite all the other precautions they were taking.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak

Thanks for mentioning that. Someone I know lives up there and sent me that too, and then I couldn't find it. I wonder how big the space was. As you said, they were singing and thus expelling droplets much more than mere speaking or breathing, and the room was probably quite dense with people.

I can't access the article any more because my limit is up. Can you excerpt parts about what the precautions were?

HotardAg07 said:

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Saw this case of a choir practice where allegedly everybody stayed 6 feet apart and didn't touch and so on where the coronavirus was spread throughout most participants. Singing probably is projecting those droplets a lot more than regular talking but it is worth thinking about how readily it spread despite all the other precautions they were taking.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak

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A 2 hour choir practice is prolonged exposure and I highly doubt they maintained 6 feet of separation for the entire duration of the practice.

Not a doctor, but from what I understand there is a difference in "traces of virus being found" and enough viral load to infect someone.

Obviously this **** is new so maybe it works different that other viruses does.

Quote:

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Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.

"It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places," Burdick recalled. "We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other."

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Thank you, Hotard, I appreciate the detail.

Good point. The article talked about how the researchers did what is presumably a common test, trying to see if the virus samples collected would infect an animal cell. None did. They are doing more research into that aspect.

Of course that's not the same thing as being in a room and inhaling a fresh sampling of virus vs. testing a virus that has been sitting around for a couple of days.