Welcome to the Kotke Ride Home for Monday, May 17th, 2021. I'm Jackson Bird. The microscopic error with major implications that seems to have delayed public health officials in acknowledging the aerosol transmission of COVID-19.

Why Shrek continues to endure as a touchstone of internet culture and how it changed the game

for animated films. And a quick look at two new video games doing some good in the world.

Here are some of the cool things

from the news today. Does COVID-19 spread via aerosol transmission? That was the big debate all

pandemic long among scientists around the world and in some cases is a debate still ongoing.

Last week, Wired published a look at how one microscopic screw-up from 60 years ago was a

leading cause of this major disagreement. And how small of a screw-up are we talking? About 5 microns.

But let's back up. Quoting Wired,

according to the medical canon, nearly all respiratory infections transmit through coughs or sneezes.

Whenever a sick person hacks, bacteria, and viruses spray out like bullets from a gun,

quickly falling and sticking to any surface within a blast radius of three to six feet. If these droplets alight on a nose or mouth or on a hand that then touches

the face, they can cause an infection. Only a few diseases were thought to break this droplet rule.

Measles and tuberculosis transmit a different way. They're described as airborne. Those pathogens

travel inside aerosols, microscopic particles that can stay suspended for hours and travel longer

distances. They can spread when contagious people simply breathe. The distinction between

droplet and airborne transmission has enormous consequences. To combat droplets,

a leading precaution is to wash hands frequently with soap and water. To fight infectious aerosols,

the air itself is the enemy. In hospitals, that means expensive isolation wards and N95 masks for

all medical staff, end quote.

So when does a particle become defined as a droplet versus an aerosol?

When it's larger than five microns in diameter.

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