Nicolas Smit has shared a collection of quoted text pulled from the CDC web site showing that the CDC had documented concern about airborne transmission and had advised for airborne precautions as early as January 2020. I’ve had people react to this with disbelief. But these are from the CDC’s own web site archive. (See the list below.)
It’s much like the report OSHA put out in March 2020 about engineering controls to prevent airborne disease spread in workplaces, which was just cast aside. That report recommended “installing high-efficiency filters” and increasing ventilation
I have noticed that the hospital Geisinger CMC in Scranton Pennsylvania has improved their ventilation. But many people I talk to even now don’t know that HEPA air filtration can help.
From Nicolas’ document https://tinyurl.com/CDCsaidSARS2airborne
This January 2020 document from the CDC explains the agency wanted hospitals to use precautions against airborne pathogens around Covid patients and to take extra precautions since the agency did not know if SARS-CoV-2 remained infectious in the air as long as the virus causing tuberculosis. “Standard practice for pathogens spread by airborne route (e.g. measles, tuberculosis) is to restrict unprotected individuals, including HCP, from entering a vacated room until sufficient time has elapsed for enough air exchanges to remove potentially infectious particles. We do not yet know how long 2019-nCoV remains infectious in the air. In the interim, it is reasonable to apply a similar time period before entering the room without respiratory protection as used for pathogens spread by airborne route (e.g. measles, tuberculosis).”
Direct links to the CDC web site with the information:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/84639/cdc_84639_DS1.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/pdf/2020-March-HICPAC-Summary-508.pdf
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/115055/cdc_115055_DS1.pdf
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/115232/cdc_115232_DS1.pdf
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/107956/cdc_107956_DS1.pdf
PDF FILES
March 2020 OSHA document