OPINION: Australian air quality standards can combat Covid

According to Raina MacIntyre, a senior epidemiologist, Australia’s focus on hand hygiene has been about as effective as telling people that mosquitoes will give them HIV.

According to Professor MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales, a national air safety campaign and national standards for safe indoor air should be established.

The federal government spent millions of dollars on public awareness programmes to get Australians to properly wash their hands and socially remove themselves during the outset of the Covid outbreak. However, as knowledge of the virus grew and proof emerged that it was primarily communicated through the air, no equivalent effort for better ventilation was launched.

“There’s a lot of denial going on.” As humans, we find it difficult to comprehend that this [virus] has occurred… “I don’t believe we’ll be returning to 2019 anytime soon,” MacIntyre added.

“It hasn’t transformed into a common cold.” This isn’t a case of the flu. “It’s time to take our heads out of the sand.”

Despite the availability of vaccines, individuals should still wear masks and understand that “washing your hands won’t prevent you.”

“It’s like informing everyone that HIV is spread by mosquitoes and then advising them to use their Aeroguard and they’ll be fine,” she said.

When HIV was first discovered in the 1980s, many people assumed that it was communicated through the air, by touching, sweating, or by mosquitoes. However, it can only be spread through bodily fluids.

While Covid can be spread through infected surfaces, the danger is extremely low, and some researchers mockingly refer to thorough washing and cleaning as “hygiene theatre.”

Researchers and health authorities took a long time to realise that Covid is largely an airborne virus.

On Monday, the independent expert organisation OzSage advised that school openings be postponed until pupils have been vaccinated and indoor air quality regulations have been reached.

“It hasn’t transformed into a common cold.” This isn’t a case of the flu. “It’s time to take our heads out of the sand.”

Despite the availability of vaccines, individuals should still wear masks and understand that “washing your hands won’t prevent you.”

“It’s like informing everyone that HIV is spread by mosquitoes and then advising them to use their Aeroguard and they’ll be fine,” she said.

When HIV was first discovered in the 1980s, many people assumed that it was communicated through the air, by touching, sweating, or by mosquitoes. However, it can only be spread through bodily fluids.

While Covid can be spread through infected surfaces, the danger is extremely low, and some researchers mockingly refer to thorough washing and cleaning as “hygiene theatre.”

Researchers and health authorities took a long time to realise that Covid is largely an airborne virus.

On Monday, the independent expert organisation OzSage advised that school openings be postponed until pupils have been vaccinated and indoor air quality regulations have been reached.

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