Scientists say plastic barriers may make things worse

[nolan]

A story in today’s Chicago Tribune says the plastic barriers that have popped up everywhere may not be helping prevent the spread of COVID19 and might be making things worse:

Intuition tells us a plastic shield would be protective against germs. But scientists who study aerosols, airflow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers do not help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barriers can make things worse.

This link may be behind a paywall: chicagotribune.com/coronavi … story.html

[kevin_bachler]

@nolan

A story in today’s Chicago Tribune says the plastic barriers that have popped up everywhere may not be helping prevent the spread of COVID19 and might be making things worse:

Intuition tells us a plastic shield would be protective against germs. But scientists who study aerosols, airflow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers do not help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barriers can make things worse.

This link may be behind a paywall: chicagotribune.com/coronavi … story.html

Yeah, saw this. A while ago we stopped using them because they added little if anything to masks and vaccines. However, for chess the idea is that aerosols are forced down rather than across, tending to drop off the table toward the floor. It’s not clear to me that in the general study that that was a consideration.

But I agree they aren’t necessary. A good N95 or KN95 does more.