Some scientists are now focusing on tinier particles, the ones that spread more like cigarette smoke. Those are carried by wisps of air and even upward drafts caused by the warmth of our bodies. They can linger in the air for minutes to hours, spreading throughout a room and build up if ventilation is poor.
But 2020 has also shown health experts were locked into an expectation this pandemic would be a flu bug – another species-jumping variant of the influenza virus that has already produced recent close shaves like 2005’s bird flu, and 2009’s swine flu. And instead the world got hit by a mutated coronavirus. Sars-CoV-2, to name the strain. Covid-19, to name the disease. A relative of the common cold. From there, all kinds of medical and scientific confusion has ensued.
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Professor Michael Baker: Switch in strategy from pandemic mitigation to elimination still feels desperately last minute. University of Otago public health researcher, Professor Michael Baker – a member of the Ministry of Health s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Group – says if the international response to the pandemic has seemed indecisive or uncertain, this is a big part of the reason.
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