Absolutely fascinating article on how the WHO and some scientists got how the virus spread wrong.

The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill

We know that scientists do get it wrong sometimes and the article shows that once it is wrong, it can be difficult to put right.

What must have happened, she thought, was that after Wells died, scientists inside the CDC conflated his observations. They plucked the size of the particle that transmits tuberculosis out of context, making 5 microns stand in for a general definition of airborne spread. Wells’ 100-micron threshold got left behind. “You can see that the idea of what is respirable, what stays airborne, and what is infectious are all being flattened into this 5-micron phenomenon,” Randall says. Over time, through blind repetition, the error sank deeper into the medical canon.

Once people admit they were wrong through things can be fixed.

ON FRIDAY, APRIL 30, the WHO quietly updated a page on its website. In a section on how the coronavirus gets transmitted, the text now states that the virus can spread via aerosols as well as larger droplets.

I am not qualified to assess the impact of this but I still find the study very interesting.