Maarten De Cock @mdc_martinus Twitter profile

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Maarten De Cock

2 years

Think of an airborne pandemic as a global network of poorly ventilated rooms where humans rebreathe each other’s air. Then you realize this pandemic is a global indoor air crisis. All countries have a responsibility to provide #SafeIndoorAir . #WorldVentil8Day #COVIDisAirborne

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Why I carry a CO2 meter with me... I possibly escaped an infection by immediately leaving this restaurant. A person who stayed there, later tested positive. If we want to prevent the next wave or even the next pandemic, we need to keep fighting for #SafeIndoorAir ! #covidCO2

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Prof Jose-Luis Jimenez:“Droplets on surfaces is very convenient for people in power - all of the responsibility is on the individual. On the other hand, if you admit it is airborne, institutions, governments and companies have to do something.” @jljcolorado

The 2,000-year-old airborne disease theory that blinded Covid experts

As a result precautions such as wearing masks and better ventilation in public spaces were tragically delayed, says a new report

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez: “Droplets and surfaces are very convenient for people in power - all of the responsibility is on the individual. On the other hand, if you admit it is airborne, institutions, governments and companies have to do something.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

12 days

A new study found that when Swiss hospitals switched to a more stringent mask policy, “the percentage of healthcare-associated infections subsequently declined in institutions with policy switch but not in the others.” Again: we live in a world where the laws of physics apply.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

15 days

A new study found that the difference between not strictly and strictly wearing N95 respirators in healthcare settings is equivalent to the difference between detecting or not detecting SARS-CoV-2 in the air. In other words, we live in a world where the laws of physics apply.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

At the time when @WHO was assuring the world: “COVID-19 is NOT airborne”… …a ‘return to office’-document for WHO staff in Geneva stated: Ventilation system has been modified • increased volume of external air • no recycling of air • filters rated as high as we can go… 🤔

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

Interesting new study from Japan shows how the airborne infection risk in a room can quickly be made visible with a CO2 monitor. Check out the hospital outbreaks. They show once again how droplet precautions against SARS-CoV-2 are simply inadequate. 👉

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

15 days

A new study found that the difference between not strictly and strictly wearing N95 respirators in healthcare settings is equivalent to the difference between detecting or not detecting SARS-CoV-2 in the air. In other words, we live in a world where the laws of physics apply.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Belgium has finally come up with a solid indoor air policy. This ventilation plan could have been done much earlier and it is not perfect, but it will certainly be a step towards more #SafeIndoorAir . Hopefully it may inspire many other countries!

Bars, cinemas, gyms: Belgium agrees on 'ventilation plan' for public places

On average, people spend 85% of the day indoors – making healthy indoor air of great importance to the population's health, especially among vulnerable groups.

www.brusselstimes.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

10 months

Massachusetts, Act of 1888: ‘Every public building and every schoolhouse shall be ventilated in such a proper manner that the air shall not become so exhausted as to be injurious to the health of the persons present therein.’ The inspectors went from school to school with… 🧵

David Elfstrom

@DavidElfstrom

10 months

Here we go again. Another year, another school portable with shit #ventilation and an underperforming HEPA barely enough for two people. At its lowest CO2 the classroom had been unoccupied for 40 min. How is this a good learning environment?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Belgium's Corona Commissioner @PedroFacon : 👉Aerosol/cigarette smoke analogy. 👉CO2 meters: • Recommended in ALL indoor public spaces. • MANDATORY in hotels, restaurants, bars, banquet halls and fitness centers. Many thanks for this pioneering initiative! #SafeIndoorAir

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

9 months

"Managers are reading this and freaking out.” From an e-mail (Apr. 7, 2020) between two former White House Medical Unit Directors after CDC suggests possibility of airborne transmission. Found on:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Good news from Belgium! The bill on the improvement of indoor air quality in public spaces has been passed and will become law. 👉 Let it be an inspiration for other countries. Preventing & fighting airborne pandemics, requires #SafeIndoorAir everywhere!

Linsey Marr https://www.threads.net/@linseycmarr

@linseymarr

2 years

Belgium's plan for ensuring cleaner indoor air is a good model for others: 1) public indoor spaces must display CO2 level 2) risk analysis and action plan 3) targets: level A (CO2 < 900 ppm and clean air provided at 40 m3/h/person) and level B (CO2 < 1200 ppm and 25 m3/h/person)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

Study about COVID-19 transmission in classrooms. “long-range transmission route is dominant” “…many more students are exposed via the long-range airborne route and the total exposure of all students to the virus via short-range airborne was lower than for long-range airborne.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

A tragic U-Turn for the history books! Watch closely what happened AFTER @drTedros said what he already knew: “Corona is airborne!" (Feb. 11, 2020) One quick intervention of @DrMikeRyan and @drTedros changed his statement: suddenly the virus spreads via droplets... #WhyMike ?

Lara

@Iamgoingtosleep

3 years

@itosettiMD_MBA @WHO 11 February 2020 40:27 @DrTedros said "COVID is airborne" 42:00 talk between @DrTedros and @DrMikeRyan 46:23 @DrTedros said laughing "sorry, I use the military word, airborne" In less than 7 minutes, the history of the pandemic changed dramatically.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

11 months

Doctor's waiting room with CO2 monitor. 👍 Unfortunately this is still exceptional. Every public space, and certainly waiting rooms for patients, should display CO2. *Thanks for sharing @SMeerbeeck !

Sophie VM

@SMeerbeeck

11 months

Dochter op Scoutskamp in #Ardennen had dringend medische hulp nodig. In het dorp #Tintigny met 4000 inwoners gingen we naar de wachtdienst #artsen en wat zagen we daar in de wachtkamer? @HarrySpoelstra @CO2meetactie @CarlvKeirsbilck @mdc_martinus @Soulmat26299591 @jljcolorado

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Suppose an epidemic caused by contaminated drinking water. Everyone immediately understands we should solve the drinking water problem. We don't have a drinking water crisis now, but an indoor air crisis. Why then policymakers keep ignoring or minimizing the indoor air problem?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

11 months

Documents make clear that the @WHO knew very well that MERS & SARS were airborne (“ventilation is..important factor”/“SARS is an airborne virus”). Yet in Jan. 2020 they claimed the transmission of MERS & SARS occurs only “through droplets, contact and fomites”. A deadly lie.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

. @WHO 2007: 👉 For SARS adequate ventilation is “crucial measure to reduce spread” (≈ Airborne transmission is important). 👉 “Airborne precautions should be practiced until route of transmission is clarified.” WHO Jan. 2020: No airborne precautions for new coronavirus. 🤷‍♂️

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

“Carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors – which measure human exhalation – should be displayed in "every public space" so individuals can improve ventilation or leave if concentrations are too high.” — Professor Lidia Morawska —

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

Cambridge Disinformation Summit, July 2023: @WHO ’s Dir. of Comm. @gabbystern is confronted with WHO’s own misinformation by someone from the audience. The bold questioner is… the great film producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, The Walking Dead, …) 👏 @GunnerGale

Gale Anne Hurd

@GunnerGale

1 year

Very excited to participate in the #Cambridge #Disinformation #Summit later this month, and looking forward to hearing from the experts on real world solutions to these existential threats.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

Bioaerosol scientist @brosseau_lisa :"This whole discussion about aerosols is something...infectious disease physicians…don't want to talk about...I think it frightens them." Why is this even accepted? Would we allow engineers to build bridges if they’re afraid of mathematics?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

“When a single disease affects a great number of individuals at the same time, we must attribute this to the most common cause, to that which we all use the most; and this is what we breathe.” From the Hippocratic Treatise by Polybus, c.400 BCE (!)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

This announcement leaves no doubt: @WHO_Europe now fully supports the importance of CO2 monitoring and indoor air quality improvement in public buildings. Next step: @WHO leaders acknowledging the global indoor air crisis and demanding governments/organizations to act on it.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

Regional Director @hans_kluge announces @WHO_Europe ’s Indoor Air Quality Conference. (20 September, Bern) “This is one of the big lessons of the pandemic: the importance of clean [indoor] air, be it for virus prevention and control or general health and wellbeing.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

An underexposed scandal early in this pandemic is that the @WHO mission in China concealed the crucial fact that in January 2020 Chinese hospitals had succeeded in stopping infections among healthcare workers by taking AIRBORNE precautions. The WHO knew, concealed it ánd lied.

Byline Times

@BylineTimes

3 years

‘World Health Organisation Doomed the World by Concealing Evidence of Airborne COVID Transmission’ – Byline Times

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

“Why did WHO's scientists believe they understood more about aerosols than aerosol experts?” “...how many deaths could have been prevented if WHO had listened to researchers who are specialists in their field.”

WHO Finally Admits Coronavirus Is Airborne. It’s Too Late

Why did the World Health Organization take 10 months to offer public health guidance?

www.forbes.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

Can someone ask @mvankerkhove to explain why @WHO Geneva Campus in spring 2020 modified their ventilation system with increased air supply, better air filtering and no recycling of air? Was it so she could safely spread this message?

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

At the time when @WHO was assuring the world: “COVID-19 is NOT airborne”… …a ‘return to office’-document for WHO staff in Geneva stated: Ventilation system has been modified • increased volume of external air • no recycling of air • filters rated as high as we can go… 🤔

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

By the way, note that in addition to monkeypox, @WHO also removed smallpox. A closely related airborne virus is apparently inconvenient at the moment... Also a missed opportunity to add SARS-CoV-2 to the examples. It is a virus most people know about I should think...

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Bravo! That must be a record. @WHO changed this document👇 less than 24 hours after I tweeted about it. Monkeypox is not mentioned anymore as an example of an airborne pathogen. But more than 24 MONTHS after their “COVID-19 is NOT airborne” tweet, it’s still there unchanged...

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

•This is an indoor pandemic. •It needs superspreadings to keep on going. •Superspreadings happen when aerosols with viruses are allowed to build up in shared indoor air. •We need good ventilation, CO2 monitoring, air filters. •With #SafeIndoorAir , no pandemic anymore!

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Time to bring this back to the attention. A clear and visual explanation of why preventing superspreading events is key to stopping the pandemic. By @martinenserink , @kakape and @nirja_desai

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

4 years

Available online since early April, this is probably one of the most important (and tragic) articles written this year. “Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The world should face the reality”. Lidia Morawska and Junji Cao tried to warn the world, but they were sadly ignored.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Bravo! That must be a record. @WHO changed this document👇 less than 24 hours after I tweeted about it. Monkeypox is not mentioned anymore as an example of an airborne pathogen. But more than 24 MONTHS after their “COVID-19 is NOT airborne” tweet, it’s still there unchanged...

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

From a @WHO document published in 2022. “Examples of pathogens that spread via airborne transmission are...” 👉monkeypox virus (!) Source:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

4 years

Ideally everyone should have a CO2 meter during this pandemic. It is like having an extra sense that warns you for too much exhaled air in indoor spaces. Do not stay too long in places where the CO2 concentration exceeds 800 ppm! #COVID19

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

Published in @TheLancet on January 24, 2020 (!) Chinese scientists warned the world: 👉“Airborne precautions..are strongly recommended” The @WHO refused to do this & also ignored the letter👇from @GlobalNursesU to @DrTedros (Jan. 30, 2020) asking @WHO for airborne precautions.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

On 30 January (!) 2020, Global Nurses United wrote @DrTedros a letter demanding @WHO to call for “airborne precautions to be implemented when health care workers are caring for patients with possible or known 2019-nCoV infections.” They were ignored. 👉

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

In 1860 Florence Nightingale dreamt about how “a little air-test” could lead to a clean air revolution. “We should have parents saying. (….) “I will not send my child to that school, the air-test stands at ‘Horrid.’” We can make her dream come true. Let’s measure indoor CO2!

The Royal Society

@royalsociety

2 months

Florence Nightingale, born #OnThisDay in 1820, is best known as the ‘lady with the lamp’ and the founder of modern nursing. She was also a brilliant statistician and pioneered the use of data visualisation. #WomenInSTEM

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Yesterday, the @WHO claimed: “FACT: The #monkeypox virus is NOT airborne” Let’s now see what this scientific study shows us. This is evidence that the monkeypox virus is airborne. Please correct @WHO ’s misinformation. @PeopleDocGeneva @mvankerkhove

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

That public health agencies in the 21st century were able to LIE about the transmission route of coronaviruses ánd that most ‘science journalists’ uncritically helped spreading this, is the scandal of the century. 👇Review paper about coronaviruses in 1974 (!) HT: @jmcrookston

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Here just some of the scientific studies that the @WHO deliberately ignored. Why did they do this? Why did they lie about the role of airborne transmission in other coronaviruses (SARS & MERS)? Was it to avoid airborne precautions for the new coronavirus? Investigate please!

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

COVID-19 Technical Lead @mvankerkhove about early pandemic response: “…too few took enough action to limit the spread… warn their populations.” I wonder why…🤔👇

Maria Van Kerkhove

@mvankerkhove

1 year

… unfortunately, too few listened… and too few took enough action to limit the spread, get hospitals ready for patients, increase supplies, warn their populations…

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

“People are taking these sensors into their offices, favorite coffee shops, airplanes, and everywhere else and often sharing the results on social media, sometimes publicly shaming owners of venues where the readings are bad. This is a transformational change.” #covidCO2

Joseph Allen

@j_g_allen

8 months

This is a transformational change. Organizations that aren’t yet thinking about how to implement real-time “health” monitoring in their buildings should do so soon for a variety of reasons. [THREAD]

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

For years, @WHO ’s chief scientist didn’t speak up about the agency’s criminal denial that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus. Only now, after leaving her position, she expresses some regret. Too little, too late. We need a thorough investigation.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

“Vaccination alone has not completely controlled the COVID-19 pandemic…” “…there is a global indoor air crisis.” “…if another novel and highly contagious respiratory virus emerges in future, another pandemic is likely to occur.” (1/4)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Mario Possamai, a pandemic planning expert and Senior Advisor of Ontario’s SARS Commission, about the tragic failure of the @WHO & our public health leaders: “Lack of accountability, lack of transparency and lack of keeping up with the science. We really need to change that.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Imagine, not inspecting food during a pandemic with a foodborne virus. Nobody would accept that. But somehow, I now find myself in this strange world where not inspecting ventilation during a pandemic with an airborne virus doesn't even raise questions.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

For those who would still have doubts about the monkeypox virus being airborne (≈inhalable) or not. 👇See table 2: “Key human pathogens with evidence of aerosol transmission”. Published in 2016 in ‘American Journal of Infection Control’.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

Main message of the new book ‘No More Pandemics’: “If all indoor spaces where people gather are consistently supplied with fresh air through ventilation (<1000 ppm CO2), respiratory infections will come to an end and disappear in any region.” 👉Keep fighting for #SafeIndoorAir !

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Think of an airborne pandemic as a global network of poorly ventilated rooms where humans rebreathe each other’s air. Then you realize this pandemic is a global indoor air crisis. All countries have a responsibility to provide #SafeIndoorAir . #WorldVentil8Day #COVIDisAirborne

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

Regional Director @hans_kluge announces @WHO_Europe ’s Indoor Air Quality Conference. (20 September, Bern) “This is one of the big lessons of the pandemic: the importance of clean [indoor] air, be it for virus prevention and control or general health and wellbeing.”

Kimberly Prather, Ph.D.

@kprather88

1 year

Looking forward to speaking at this meeting on improving indoor air in Bern in Switzerland on Sept 20 @WHO_Europe

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Dr. Osterholm: “Scientific inquiry needs to shift away from medical masks, which have already been established as inferior to N95s.” @WHO ’s recommendation is a “public health malpractice.” Dr. MacIntyre: “Medical masks aren’t respiratory protection” @mtosterholm @Globalbiosec

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

New paper by @linseymarr & @Jon_Samet “One..key lesson learned from the COVID19 pandemic became clear..: the need to embrace the management of indoor air as a primary tool for controlling transmission of respiratory pathogens..through ventilation, filtration and disinfection.”🧵

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

4 months

“Bad air(…)promotes the spread of contagious disease, and not infrequently makes closing as a prevention necessary. Schools which have suffered such almost yearly loss of weeks have, after the introduction of good ventilation, been for years free from such interruption.” 👉1888

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

The Ventilation and Warming of School Buildings G.B. Morrison, 1887 “Why is it regarded by the public with such indifference?” “Why does the intelligent parent send his child to a school-room poorly ventilated (…) breathing into a stagnant air the germs of disease and death.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

4 months

‘Carbon Dioxide as a Measure of the Efficiency of Ventilation’ Written by Ellen H. Richards from @MIT in 1893. “…the advocate of pure air finds slight hearing.” “…filtered air like filtered water has become a necessity” (1/3)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

“We alerted the @WHO about..airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed.” “We hope that by reporting this story, we can..prevent it from happening again.” Here the whole story: 👉

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

@prettypennytwin @WHO My point? For example, at that time I tried to convince directors of nursing homes to provide more ventilation, use CO2 monitors, airfilters,… I showed them the science, but they wrote ‘not necessary, it’s not airborne’, referring to the WHO. Thousands died. Thát is my point!

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

It has been known for 50 years that coronaviruses can transmit by aerosols. The vast majority of the world and journalists still don't realize how this outrageously unscientific and irresponsible claim by the @WHO in Jan. 2020👇led to a catastrophic infection prevention failure.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

That public health agencies in the 21st century were able to LIE about the transmission route of coronaviruses ánd that most ‘science journalists’ uncritically helped spreading this, is the scandal of the century. 👇Review paper about coronaviruses in 1974 (!) HT: @jmcrookston

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

4 months

Single genomic cluster, 45 COVID-19 cases in an apartment building in 🇨🇦. Most cases had no known contact with each other. The building was undersupplied for outdoor air. Air leakage between apartment units allowed infectious aerosols to travel from one location to another.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Lidia Morawska: “Airborne transmission was so obvious as far back as February 2020. Omitting it from official guidelines was disastrous.”

Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne

Nature - Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and...

www.nature.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

5 months

Today four years ago. Not one single journalist has asked @DrTedros or @DrMikeRyan about what happened there and why…

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

A tragic U-Turn for the history books! Watch closely what happened AFTER @drTedros said what he already knew: “Corona is airborne!" (Feb. 11, 2020) One quick intervention of @DrMikeRyan and @drTedros changed his statement: suddenly the virus spreads via droplets... #WhyMike ?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

We no longer tolerate public indoor spaces filled with cigarette smoke. Then, certainly during this pandemic... ...we should NOT accept indoor spaces with too much exhaled air. #covidCO2 #COVIDisAirborne

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 month

CDC ‘Biological Risk Assessment Form’ for “2019 novel Coronavirus”. Date: January 30, 2020. • “Airborne? 🔳 Yes” • “Routes of transmission: 🔳 Inhalation” • Refers to several LAIs with SARS-CoV (2003-2004) via aerosol exposure. (*FOIA request by @James___Morris )🧵👇

Dr James Morris

@James___Morris

1 month

Recently I saw some Risk assessment documents from CDC on covid from Jan & Feb 2020. They are interesting to say the least. So what is a Risk Assessment (RA)? RA is a formal process of analyzing a situation & understanding the hazards of what are you dealing with. 1/x

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

•SARS-CoV-1 was airborne. •Early outbreak investigations: clearly airborne. •Expert Lidia Morawska: since February 2020 airborne was obvious. •Feb.6 Trump was informed: Airborne. •Feb.8 Chinese press conference: Airborne. •Feb.11 @WHO : Airborne!...Ehm sorry, not airborne.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

A tragic U-Turn for the history books! Watch closely what happened AFTER @drTedros said what he already knew: “Corona is airborne!" (Feb. 11, 2020) One quick intervention of @DrMikeRyan and @drTedros changed his statement: suddenly the virus spreads via droplets... #WhyMike ?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

5 months

1803 📖 "An epidemic raged in Glasgow, and there was scarcely a family, high or low, which escaped attacks from it. But at Glasgow they have an exceedingly well-appointed, well ventilated prison, and in that prison there was not a single case of epidemic…” (1/2)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

⚠️Very important study + thread by @ukhadds . CO2 conc. plays an even more important role in airborne transmission than previously thought. We knew for centuries that high indoor CO2 indicates poor ventilation, but it also extends the TIME viruses in aerosols remain infectious!

Al Haddrell

@ukhadds

2 months

I’m excited to discuss our latest research on how ambient CO2 affects how long #SARSCoV2 remains infectious in air. We report that even subtle increases in CO2 affects both how long #COVIDisAirborne and transmission risk. Here’s a🧵going over the findings

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Important plea about monkeypox in The Lancet not to repeat the mistakes made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Broaden the case definition so less cases will be missed and consider the possibilty of asymptomatic and airborne transmission.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Droplet, contact & fomites: the transmission modes for coronaviruses according to the @WHO at the beginning of this pandemic. Not only did they ignore many scientific studies supporting airborne transmission, they also looked away from their OWN 2003 SARS consensus document!👇

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

January 2020: the @WHO deems airborne precautions unnecessary. They motivated this with the scientifically INCORRECT claim that outbreaks with other coronaviruses (SARS & MERS) didn’t show airborne transmission. 👇 Or how science denial can lead to millions of deaths.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

9 months

When @DrTedros briefly exclaimed "Corona is airborne!" (Feb. 2020), it was not just ‘a slip of the tongue’. The testimony of David Heymann, Chair of @WHO 's ‘STAG-IH’, shows that in Jan. 2020 the @WHO was fully aware of the airborne outbreaks in China.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

A tragic U-Turn for the history books! Watch closely what happened AFTER @drTedros said what he already knew: “Corona is airborne!" (Feb. 11, 2020) One quick intervention of @DrMikeRyan and @drTedros changed his statement: suddenly the virus spreads via droplets... #WhyMike ?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

5 months

On this day, four years ago:

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

Published in @TheLancet on January 24, 2020 (!) Chinese scientists warned the world: 👉“Airborne precautions..are strongly recommended” The @WHO refused to do this & also ignored the letter👇from @GlobalNursesU to @DrTedros (Jan. 30, 2020) asking @WHO for airborne precautions.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

🧵February 7, 2020. @DrMikeRyan on the cruise ship outbreak : “Let’s be careful not to overreact..Remember, in SARS..this disease isn’t airborne..[😳]there was a great scare that this was airborne..It didn't turn out to be so.. a cruise ship is a very particular environment.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

9 months

These guidelines by the International Society for Infectious Diseases about infection control of COVID-19 are still based upon the unscientific droplet dogma, which caused so much misery in the world. It was updated in… September 2023 (!). Shame on you, @ISID_org !

David R Tomlinson 🇺🇦💙

@DRTomlinsonEP

9 months

. @ISID_org this is a v bad look May I respectfully suggest you sack your scientific advisors? 🚨 Your statement concerning SARS2 transmission represents a perpetuation of anti-reality narratives created by multi-national PH agencies intent on concealing the truth Thank you

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

Remember this @DrTedros ?: "Under the principle of the human right to health, everyone has the right to breathe healthy indoor air." (WHO, 2000) #SafeIndoorAir for everyone, not just the elite!

Andrew Lawton

@AndrewLawton

1 year

Everyone at the World Economic Forum annual meeting — including journalists and participants — has to take a PCR test upon arrival. If you don’t take a test, the chip in your ID badge is deactivated. If you test positive for Covid the badge is also deactivated.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

For the first time during this pandemic one of the many “not airborne tweets”, connected to the WHO, has been removed. @DrTedros finally decided to delete his tweet from March 6, 2020 in which he said that the coronavirus is not airborne.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

🧵 of uncorrected @WHO tweets containing dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 transmission. They are all still there. They can cause harm. Other, less harmful @WHO tweets, have been taken down by @WHO , so why they refuse to do something about this? /1

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Learn from the past, and expect the unexpected. #Smallpox #Monkeypox “17 cases of smallpox on three floors of the hospital...𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝.” “Most reasonable explanation...the airborne route.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Prof. Raina MacIntyre, Head of the Biosecurity Program at the University of New South Wales: 👉"The monkeypox virus is a respiratory virus and can also spread to humans without contact, probably through aerosols." Ignoring aerosols is irresponsible @WHO , @rivm ,.. Not again!

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Professor Lidia Morawska: “The monkeypox virus can be present in respiratory particles of any size (...) there is no basis to the statement that the virus is transmitted only by large droplets and presenting infection risk only on close distances.”

C.D.C. Dismisses Airborne Transmission of Monkeypox. Some Experts Disagree. (Published 2022)

The virus “is not known to linger in the air,” agency officials said. But the research is far from definitive.

www.nytimes.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

👇Buried in a little-known IAQ document from last year (2022): recommendations for the use of CO2 meters in classrooms by… the @WHO ! Though the COVID-19 pandemic is not mentioned, it does advise to lower the alert limits of the CO2 sensors “in the case of severe epidemics”.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Actions speak louder than words. Respect for Prof. @realBertBlocken and his #aircleaning team. May many follow in their footsteps. This is a global indoor air crisis. Politicians worldwide should listen to science ánd act towards more #SafeIndoorAir ! 👉

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

27 days

🦠🏒🇯🇵 Interesting new study investigating ventilation and aerosol diffusion at an ice arena where a superspreading event took place. 172 persons (among wich all 42 ice hockey players) got infected with SARS-CoV-2. Not surprisingly, the ventilation was seriously insufficient.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

The @WHO gets a question about possibility of aerosol transmission of the #monkeypox virus. Answer: “We don’t know.” (53:19) So then it’s their duty to use the precautionary principle and urgently include airborne precautions! Not tomorrow, but now!

Monkeypox outbreak: What we need to know

null

www.youtube.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

Hospital Infection Control Guidance for SARS by @WHO in 2003. In contrast to this pandemic, @WHO advised at the time: 👉Airborne precautions 👉“N95 mask as a minimum” (Retrieved via The Wayback Machine: ) Why did @WHO “forget” this in 2020?

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

In early 2020, there was a sudden collective amnesia about airborne transmission of other coronaviruses among @WHO 's IPC experts. We must uncover the causes of this mysterious "amnesia" so that it does not recur in the next pandemic.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

We have it here on paper. 👉 (page 12) May 2020 (!) @UNGeneva assures their own employees (WHO is part of UN Geneva) that “in the context of COVID-19” ventilation measures are being taken to reduce… …“the spread of all AIRBORNE viruses”.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

🔥Spring 2020 @UNGeneva to the public: 👉“Transmission of #COVID19 is through droplets. It is NOT airborne.” @UNGeneva to their own employees: 👉“…ensure that 100% fresh air is injected into the ventilated space. This measure reduces the spread of all AIRBORNE viruses.”

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

That @WHO press conference on the terminology of airborne transmission was apparently not something journalists were very interested in, to say the least…

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Know your enemy and attack where it hurts the most. SARS-CoV-2 is airborne and superspreads in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Infection prevention experts and policymakers should have one big focus: the prevention of indoor superspreading. Don’t look away from this reality!

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Time to bring this back to the attention. A clear and visual explanation of why preventing superspreading events is key to stopping the pandemic. By @martinenserink , @kakape and @nirja_desai

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

“Even as ⁦WHO⁩ officials continued to discredit their research, Marr & Jimenez found ways to educate people about the seriousness of the virus and its ability to be airborne.” They sure did! Many thanks to ⁦ @linseymarr ⁩ & ⁦ @jljcolorado ⁩!

Read how WHO wrongly declared Covid-19 infection is not airborne

WHO had rejected studies by aerosol scientists confirming that Covid-19 virus can be airborne, relying on decades old faulty theories

www.opindia.com

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

This was the @WHO twenty years ago. 👇 What has happened in that organization since then, one wonders, that they kept looking away from the fact that this pandemic is a real indoor air crisis. #COVIDisAirborne #SafeIndoorAir #InternationalDayOfCleanAir

Asit

@akm5376

2 years

#internationaldayofcleanair Decades back, in 2000, @WHO put forth a then revolutionary idea of "Right to Healthy Indoor Air". Unfortunately, 20 years later, they kind of bungled up the messaging?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 months

"Handwashing..was important in SARS-CoV-2". One of the examples during this press conference which makes clear that the @WHO will never admit that they were responsible for public health misinformation (“NOT airborne”) with disastrous consequences, let alone apologise for it.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

10 months

🧵“Rebreathing exhaled air has been considered to facilitate he spread of infection…” “Many studies have associated high CO2 level with high probability of infection spread in indoor spaces.” “The @WHO has *not* developed guidelines for indoor CO2”🤔

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Apparently @twitter informed a “limited set of people” that @WHO ’s tweet with the claim “COVID-19 is NOT airborne” is “confirmed false”. If the @WHO is serious about Health Equity, should then not *everyone* be informed about this, @DrTedros , @mvankerkhove , @gabbystern ,…?

#COVIDisAirborne and solvable HEPA/ventilate n95

@Amal4Solutions

2 years

Thank you, twitter. Thanks for nothing, @WHO This infamous WHO tweet finally confirmed FALSE. The truth: Covid can remain suspended in the air for hours. #COVIDisAirborne

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

Multiple studies have shown that improving ventilation is effective in the reduction and prevention of TB transmission. However, in the more than 50 pages of @WHO ’s recent Global Tuberculosis Report, ZERO attention is given to the prevention of airborne transmission of TB. Why?

World Health Organization (WHO)

@WHO

8 months

In 2022 more people were diagnosed with #tuberculosis since WHO began its global TB monitoring in 1995. This has started to reverse the damaging impact of the pandemic on the number of people dying from or falling ill with TB. Read the new WHO Global TB report ⬇️

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

Journalists all over the world, WHERE WERE YOU ALL THE TIME? Why did it take so long to ask these questions? And judging by how the @WHO continues to dodge this issue, this needs to be thoroughly examined, starting with that Feb. 11 press conference. 👉

Mehdi Hasan

@mehdirhasan

3 years

Why did the WHO get the airborne nature of Covid so wrong for so long? And why is there *still* a tweet up on the WHO Twitter account saying it's not airborne? Questions I put to Dr Peter Singer, a top adviser at the WHO, on the @MehdiHasanShow tonight:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

9 months

“Many people know, from unfortunate experience, and doctors recognize that most contagious diseases are communicated by breathing the air that comes out of the chest of individuals already suffering from these kinds of illnesses.” M. Rouland, 1784

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

9 months

A quote from 1784 shows that, despite limited knowledge about pathogens, people did understand airborne transmission - they knew that infectious diseases can spread from person to person by breathing in the exhaled air of the sick person.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

A pandemic with an airborne coronavirus was described by @DrMikeRyan in october 2019 as “a real and critical threat”. A few months later however the @WHO claimed that SARS, MERS & other coronaviruses are NOT airborne, so airborne precautions are unnecessary. Hello reporters?!

#COVIDisAirborne

@covidisairborne

9 months

Oct. 2019, @DrMikeRyan about the pandemic exercise with an *airborne coronavirus*: “addresses real & critical threats.” “respiratory pathogens are often transmitted by asymptomatic persons. They spread fast.” Then why @WHO ’s airborne denial when the exercise became a reality?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

28 days

‘The more CO2 there is, the more virus-friendly the air becomes.’ @ukhadds : "By increasing the CO2 in the air, we're getting rid of a natural means by which viruses become inactivated. It's fascinating, but it's also horrifying."

Al Haddrell

@ukhadds

28 days

An excellent article about our latest work connecting CO2 with virus aerostability. This article goes into some of the challenges that come with conducting transformative research during a pandemic. If you wondered what my last few years were like:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

From a @WHO document published in 2022. “Examples of pathogens that spread via airborne transmission are...” 👉monkeypox virus (!) Source:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

It is simply incomprehensible that the @WHO , after all these years and despite the growing number of scientific studies, stubbornly remains silent about such a simple public health tool as a CO2 monitor. Why? Will the new Chief Scientist @JeremyFarrar finally break that silence?

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

“An air-test of essential consequence.” In 1860 Florence Nightingale dreamt about how “a little air-test” could lead to a clean air revolution. “We should have parents saying, and saying rightly, “I will not send my child to that school, the air-test stands at ‘Horrid.’” ”

Daniel A. Walker 🇨🇦🇺🇦🌻😷💉🚴🏻

@danwalker9999

1 year

@Poppendieck @kprather88 Nightingale, F. 1860. Notes on Nursing. She advocates for better ventilation in schools and hospitals, in order to reduce infection; and anticipates the invention of the portable CO2 meter. (The air test that she refers to was a wet-chemistry CO2 test.)

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

8 months

The reply of @gabbystern however avoids the whole issue. She doesn’t answer why WHO claimed “COVID19 is not airborne” and why it took them so long to correct this. In fact @WHO ’s misinformation is STILL online, and they simply refuse to delete it or even to add a correction.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Shocking blogpost (27 Febr. 2020) by Prof. Andreas Voss ( @AVIPNL ) , member of @WHO ’s IPC group. He openly says he will have to LIE to healthcare workers. ‘[…] soon we will have a shortage of FFP2 and will have to tell our HCWs that FFP1 and surgical masks are “equally save”’.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

@Petelos1 @Iamgoingtosleep @ToshiAkima @NjbBari3 @WHOWPRO @JohnSnowProject @CleanAirCrewOrg @CleanAirClassrm @aireamos @CleanAirStars @theRavenApp @WorldVentil8Day @jljcolorado @kprather88 @linseymarr @trishgreenhalgh @Don_Milton @YouAreLobbyLud @Globalbiosec @nousaerons @RougeMatisse @BarryHunt008 @akm5376 @DavidElfstrom @WHO @Metadoc @mvankerkhove @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @allegranzib @doctorsoumya @hans_kluge @KuzmanovicA @TDPurnat @SCBriand @alicesim @LudolphRamona @ChungongStella @MLimMD @Chikwe_I @Becky_K_White @nevillecalleja @PetronilleBo @nikkishindo @DB_Presse @BMG_Bund @georgepavlakis I checked that update. So, the @WHO knows that medical masks are inadequate to protect against airborne pathogens, nevertheless they keep recommending them even to people who recently tested positive for COVID-19?! Why don’t they recommend respirators? I want to understand.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 months

@EpiEllie Stop the gaslighting. In 2020, droplets did not float but fell down. Instead of rewriting definitions to get away with the old lies, admit this was a public health disaster and make sure it never happens again.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

People from the 18th century would find it hard to believe that in the 21st century there is controversy over the claim that a patient suffering from a virus closely related to smallpox, “communicates an infectious quality to the air that surrounds him.” Written in 1784:

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

3 years

To someone who is convinced that you get infected by the virus mainly by touching things, just say: "Every time you inhale, your lungs touch the air." The windows will open quickly.

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

“A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world's most dangerous pathogens […] and has generated […] concerns. Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping.” February, 2017 in @Nature , with ao. @R_H_Ebright .

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

2 years

Prof. Lidia Morawska: “We need indoor air quality standards. Without having standards (…) nothing is going to happen.” “The worst problem is the silence we encounter. The government is completely ignoring us.” “We keep fighting!” #SafeIndoorAir 👉

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Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

7 months

Little known fact: although the IPC people in @WHO headquarters refused to recommend CO2 meters during the pandemic (still unknown why), their colleagues from the indoor air quality department do advise putting them in classrooms with an alert level at 800 ppm during epidemics.

Maarten De Cock

@mdc_martinus

1 year

👇Buried in a little-known IAQ document from last year (2022): recommendations for the use of CO2 meters in classrooms by… the @WHO ! Though the COVID-19 pandemic is not mentioned, it does advise to lower the alert limits of the CO2 sensors “in the case of severe epidemics”.

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