We started saying it here long ago, that Subways, Buses, Light rail, and Cabs (I added elevators) were huge drivers of the spread of C19 in NYC. New York, in turn, drove the spread just about everywhere else. It's nice to see that there is now supporting evidence for that. MIT study.
April 2020
ReplyDeleteMy comment was too obscure. There is a new article at https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP7202 showing that the subway in NY has far more pm2.5 particles dirtying the air than other subway systems in the NE USA, but that all of them are above current EPA limits.
ReplyDeleteIn bringing attention to this article, several blogs have mentioned the April 2020 study on COVID transmission and the NY subway.
It reinforces what neighboring blogs have been emphasizing lately about transmission of COVID 19, that airflow is important and spending time in closed spaces that infected people have spent time in greatly increases once chance of infection. But it is not new news really.
Douglas2
Yup.
ReplyDeleteI think it was in late March 2020 that I first saw the diagram of some restaurant in some other country showing how airflow influenced which customers got infected and decided that it made sense. It was during this time that I also heard a lot about disinfecting groceries and decided that wasn't such a big threat. Also, could be I decided that because I am lazy and wasn't going to wash my cans of green beans.
ReplyDeleteI get my first dose of the vaccine in two days. Since I got that appointment, I find that I'm pickier about restrictions... like, I've made it almost a year and I darn sure don't want to screw up now.
Here in Connecticut the virus followed the MetroNorth commuter trains along the shore (and pretty much stayed there for a long time). Much, Much worse than planes due to poor ventilation (clean air from 30,000 ft right on your face is much better). Our governor was deferring to Governor Cuomo in all things. A shutdown of metronorth would have been a huge help for a few weeks. Commuting by Car was relatively safe. Too many lefty pet projects would be inconvenienced (trains, commuter rail, anti-car, union rail staff.....)
ReplyDelete