Coronavirus is airborne so stop disinfecting everything: expert – CBC
UBC professor says improving ventilation should be a focus of COVID-19 prevention
May 14, 2021
Stop cleaning and start ventilating — that’s the message from Michael Brauer, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.
Given the scientific consensus that the coronavirus is airborne, Brauer is calling for a shift in COVID prevention strategies.
“We are at a point now where I think we really have quite convincing evidence that airborne transmission is the primary route of transmission. And we need to emphasize the things that we know work for that … and deemphasize the things that we know really aren’t that effective … like the cleaning of surfaces,” Brauer told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of The Dose and White Coat, Black Art.
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their website to acknowledge that the coronavirus is airborne. The World Health Organization did the same in April. The Public Health Agency of Canada updated its COVID-19 guidelines to include the risk of airborne spread in November.
