Link: Droplets! No, aerosols!

[sonia]

The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill by Megan Molteni, Wired, via conuly. "All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences."

It's a well-written article and some great historical research into scientific research. Basically, the problem was men not listening, and especially, men not listening to women. *shakes head*

Comments

[minoanmiss]

oh boy. *sighs, shakes head at the hard-eared men*

[sonia]

I'm holding onto the hope that some of these men have the integrity to do post-mortems and see where they went wrong. Science is all about listening to the data, if nothing else!

[runpunkrun]

That Wired article is fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.

[sonia]

Glad you liked it!

[asakiyume]

I read that article! I thought it was fascinating!

Oops... ETA... I posted that without seeing that the other commenter had said the same thing.

I should add something more meaty.... I was interested in all the interplays, I guess, and how hard it was to talk/listen across knowledge silos.

[sonia]

Good point about the knowledge silos. I hope the article prompts scientists to work harder at listening!

[silveradept]

That is some excellent historical research work going on there. I am glad they managed to get it right in the end, but I am annoyed that health organizations appeared to already have made their conclusions, rather than listening to all the available information.

[sonia]

Listening would certainly have saved a few (hundred thousand) lives.