Q21. What was the seminal moment that made you realize COVID-19 is an airborne pathogen?

There were two seminal moments.  The first came on January 30, 2020 when the W.H.O. called the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).  A bit of research told me way back then that this one was much more serious than SARS-1.  I immediately rushed out to get a box of 50 F2100 surgical masks.  I was the first Caucasian to wear a mask in indoor public spaces in my district and I encouraged others to do the same.  Most thought I was crazy.  It was obvious why: there was absolutely no reaction from my government or the media to the PHEIC for the entire 6 weeks until the W.H.O. called the pandemic on March 11.  That lack of acknowledgment made me distressed and by then, everyone now knows, it was too late to react effectively.

The second more prominent seminal moment came mid-July 2020, after I read the Los Alamos paper which pegged the R0 of SARS-CoV-2 at 5.7 [view here in Part 3], because until then the known value was lass than 3.  Not only did this 5.7 put the pandemic on the verge of being airborne, it also inspired the development of the crosswind air barrier.  By late October 2020 a crosswind air barrier prototype was already running at my mother's residence [view here in Part 1] saving her from a major outbreak in her building.  It did not take long for more transmissible mutations to appear and we can recognize that the B.1.1.7 variant has an R0 of at least 8 and possibly as high as 10, putting COVID-19 in the same league as measles which has an R0 of 11, a disease well-known to be airborne.  An Israeli study showed that a single dose of the pfizer vaccine is only 36% effective against B.1.1.7.  This means that jurisdictions who have extended the delay between mRNA doses beyond label are at high risk of propagating this pathogen nonetheless, even via vaccinated people who may be transmitting it unknowingly making matters worse when those governments are deceiving themselves into expecting better.