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Debate Over Airborne Transmission Of Coronavirus

Alissa Eckert, Dan Higgins/CDC

Some scientists are calling urgent attention to the way the coronavirus can waft long distances through the air. These are not the droplets that fall to the ground or onto a surface within a few feet. These are tinier gobs of virus, much smaller than a human hair. They can linger indoors, then settle deep in our lungs. Dr. Donald Milton, a respiratory disease expert at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, led a group of scientists pointing to such airborne transmission. 

You can read a PDF of the science community's letter to the WHO at this link.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'