KULTURE KAMPF

Black Conservative addresses an Alberta Christian University and a free speech fight breaks out, 

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

Tyler Dawson NATIONAL POST 4/27/2021

EDMONTON — An Alberta Christian university student council has disavowed its own apology, issued after a Black History Month speaker denied the existence of systemic racism in a speech on Biblical definitions of racism.

© Provided by National Post Samuel Sey at his Brampton, Ont., home on Monday. In a speech, he denied systemic racism based on Biblical definitions.

Last Monday, Ambrose University in Calgary said the speech, given in February by Samuel Sey, a conservative activist, blogger and Christian who is Black, “caused severe harm” to some students.


“As a Christian, what I was saying should not be controversial to them at all, but because they disagree with what the Bible says on racism, it becomes offensive to them,” Sey told the National Post on Monday. “They are essentially, by attacking me, attacking the Bible; I didn’t go there to share my opinion, I was going there to explain what the Bible says about racism.”

The apology, which was retracted Thursday, said the student council had “invited speakers to come and speak to our student body who have caused harm and offence with the words that they have spoken.”

An updated post detailed Ambrose’s commitment to free expression and intellectual diversity.

“Each person has their own experiences and we believe that by having healthy discussions and learning different world views that we have the opportunity to expand our horizons,” the statement says.

The apology was “never intended to be public and sought only to provide support for those students who had been emotionally affected,” the statement says.

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

The event was in honour of Black History Month, according to an Ambrose Student Council Facebook post.

It was intended “as part of our commitment to fostering conversations about racism and how we can support members of our community who have experienced racism,” the student council said in an email to the National Post.

Sey provided his notes for the speech to the Post. It opens with a question and a proposition: “If I asked you, what’s the best anti-racist book today, what would you say?”

“If we say anything other than the Bible we’re completely and destructively wrong.”

Sey argues that racism is determined by intention, not outcome, if you go by the Biblical definition. He cites two books of the Bible: 2 Timothy and James, arguing the “Christian definition of racism is that it’s partiality, or bias against someone because of their skin colour.”

It means “our opinions, feelings and experiences do not determine what’s racist,” he concludes. “Racial disparities between white people and black people do not prove racism…. A lack of diversity or representation doesn’t determine what’s racist.”

Sey also suggests there needs to be “a policy or law within a system — especially our political system — that shows partiality for white people or partiality against black people.” Absent that, there cannot be systemic racism, he says.

“I know no one here today can identify a single racist law,” he says.

According to the student council statement, his views — and the event itself — “caused some members of the community to feel as though Ambrose did not support their lived experience of systemic racism.”

“I guess they didn’t expect what would come out of my mouth,” Sey told the Post.

© Peter J. Thompson/National Post “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true,” says cultural blogger Samuel Sey.

He said he did ask the students to feel free to offer criticism.

“I don’t want anyone to be afraid to challenge me because of my skin colour,” he said. “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true.”

The Ambrose student council said that Sey was vetted, but that they feel the process fell short for this event.

“As a result, we have amended our vetting process so that we may better inform students about topics that are being discussed especially when they may conflict with lived experiences and convictions,” it said. “This process is not intended to reduce the variety of voices on our campus but to more clearly inform.”

Sey said that statements intended to respect and support people of colour and their lived experiences ring hollow.

“Clearly they only mean the lived experiences of black people that’s approved by Robin DiAngelo (the author of White Fragility) and themselves,” Sey said. “When they say they are allies of people of colour, they really only mean some people.”

Leading scientists urge UK to share Covid vaccines with poorer nations

YOU EXPECT THIS FROM A GOVT THAT CUT INTERNATIONAL AID

Sarah Boseley THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021

Leading scientists are urging the UK to share the Covid vaccines it has bought with India and other nations, to tackle the soaring death toll and reduce the spread of the virus and new variants around the world.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said rich countries including the UK that have bought up most of the vaccine supply “urgently need to start sharing these doses with the rest of the world, alongside national rollouts in their own countries, and through the Covax programme. And they must set out a timetable for how these donations will be increased as they vaccinate more of their populations domestically.”

© Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA A Kashmiri man receives the Covid vaccine in Srinagar. Only one in 500 people in low-income countries have been vaccinated.

Writing in the Guardian, Farrar called on the UK to lead the world, through its presidency of the G7. “We have already vaccinated over half of our population – including those who are most at risk from Covid-19. In fact, the UK has given almost as many doses to its own citizens than Covax has been able to ship to 120 countries in dire need of jabs,” he said.

Covax, the UN-based initiative to get vaccines to the most vulnerable 20% of the population of every country, has managed to deliver only a fifth of the doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected by May, because of global shortages and problems with supply.

One in four people in high-income countries are now protected but only one in 500 in low-income countries, where unvaccinated health workers are still putting their lives on the line. The US has announced it will give India 60m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet licensed for use in the US.

Farrar said sharing vaccines was in every country’s self-interest. “The shores Covid now rages upon may seem distant to some, but the reality is that so long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, it continues to be a threat to everyone. If we allow Covid-19 to keep spreading, it will go on evolving, increasing the risk of new variants that could cross borders and evade vaccines and treatments.”

Farrar’s views are shared by other leading scientists in the UK, as well as the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has talked of the “moral outrage” of vaccines for rich countries but not the poor and called for countries to share.

Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the UK needed to get to the point where all adults are vaccinated, but added: “Globally, leaders need to be saying how can we make sure that the world’s population is not dying in front of us, which we are seeing at the moment.

“If we continue to focus on vaccinating younger and younger age groups in the high income countries, when there are many thousands of people dying who are not getting the vaccine. I don’t think that’s a situation that’s acceptable. So, if the question to me is, should we be rethinking where we are. I think the answer is yes, we should be, because the only way that we can stop those people dying next month is by vaccinating them this month.”

The grim scenes playing out in India are increasing the pressure on rich countries to act. Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: “The Covid-19 situation in India is currently uncontrollable. India needs to vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the transmission of this virus.

“We must share our vaccines with them to control further infection and death. Vaccination is key to controlling every aspect of Covid going forward, for India and for all of us.”

Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of LSHTM’s vaccine centre, said the UK had ordered five times the amount of vaccines it needed for its population. Rather than give vaccines to the under-30s whose risk is low in pursuit of some concept of herd immunity, politicians should give them to the most vulnerable people in India and other countries to save lives.

“As far as the UK is concerned, I think the kind of approach of going for what we think is an elusive concept of herd immunity rather than sharing vaccines across the globe to prevent deaths is a huge mistake,” she said.

Some argue that vaccines will not help those who are suffering now in India’s hospitals for want of treatment. “But that doesn’t mean there are not other places, including in India, where vaccines can have a rapid life-saving impact,” she said.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said he liked the idea of a “tithe” for countries such as the UK, put forward by Prof Gavin Yamey of the Duke Global Health Institute in the US. For every nine vaccines given in the UK, one would be donated to Covax.

“The UK is in the enviable position of having vaccinated virtually all of our elderly and vulnerable populations and other priority groups such as healthcare workers. It would be very reasonable to suggest that some of the vaccine rollout now be distributed internationally to countries of high need,” said Head.

WATER IS LIFE 

Tribes without clean water demand an end to decades of US government neglect

A NORTH AMERICAN WHITE STATE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Nina Lakhani THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021


The US government’s haphazard approach to providing Indigenous American tribes with clean drinking water and sanitation must be radically transformed to tackle decades of underfunding and neglect, according to a new report.

An estimated one in 10 Indigenous Americans lack access to safe tap water or basic sanitation – without which a host of health conditions including Covid-19, diabetes, and gastrointestinal disease are more likely.

Among the most affected by water issues are 30 tribes within the Colorado River Basin (CRB), located across California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, according to researchers from the University of Utah and Colorado in the Water and Tribes Initiative.

Reduced rainfall and droughts linked to the climate crisis are further straining supply issues such as inadequate and ageing infrastructure, legacy contaminants, insufficient technical capacity within tribes, and limited revenue streams.

Unlike towns and cities, tribes cannot raise money through property taxes as reservation lands are held in trust by the federal government. But while the root causes vary from tribe to tribe, the overriding issue is the absence of an adequately funded comprehensive government policy to make good on treaty obligations. In exchange for the cession of millions of acres of lands to white settlers, tribes were promised a permanent homeland, a livable reservation, and a home conducive to health and prosperity

.

© Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Navajo people line up in their vehicles to collect water and supplies from a distribution point, as the Covid-19 virus spreads through the Navajo Nation, in Monument Valley at the Utah and Arizona border last year.

“These promises are broken when we do not have clean water to drink, to cook with, and to wash as required to avoid the spread of this deadly disease,” said leaders of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Ten Tribes Partnership and the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe.

Provided by The Guardian Amanda Larson, who has no running water at her home, carries water for her son Gary Jr to have a bath in the Navajo Nation town of Thoreau in New Mexico last year. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

They added: “Helping to provide clean water to us, throughout Indian Country, benefits everyone, and its absence correspondingly jeopardizes the health of the entire United States of America.”

In the US, race – not where you live or income level – is the most significant predictor of plumbing poverty, with Indigenous households 19 times more likely than white households to lack indoor pipes for running water and sanitation.

Several CRB tribes suffer from plumbing poverty, including 30% to 40% of all Navajo Nation residents, who are 67 times more likely than other Americans to live without running water. The cost of hauling water is at least 70 times more expensive than piped water. The Navajo Nation has a diabetes crisis because sugary drinks are more readily available and cheaper than potable water.

Indigenous Americans have died from Covid-19, a highly contagious virus which requires good hygiene to curtail the spread, at twice the rate of white Americans, with CRB tribes like the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache suffering disproportionately.

FIRST NATIONS ARE NORTH AMERICANS
Related: ‘An indescribable moment’: Indigenous nation in US has right to lands in Canada, court rules

Last year’s Cares Act included $5m to support installation of temporary water stations and storage tanks, but tribal leaders were unable to invest the money in urgently needed infrastructure because of an arbitrary time limit on spending. An estimated $4.5bn is needed to address the widespread lack of water access on the Navajo reservation, which is bigger than West Virginia.

Contaminated water is also pervasive in Indian Country, and out west in particular, where mining companies have left groundwater sources with elevated levels of toxic chemicals like arsenic and uranium. An estimated 75% of residents on the Hopi reservation are forced to use drinking water laced with arsenic, which poses serious health risks including cancers and birth defects.

The Trump administration approved $5m towards building a new water system on the Hopi reservation, but that is only 25% of the estimated construction cost and provides nothing towards operation and maintenance of the new pipeline.

Researchers say that the Hopi case exemplifies the limits of the government’s current piecemeal approach: federal grants are too small, require complicated applications to a myriad of agencies and almost never take into account running costs. Tribal consultation – which is key to crafting tailored solutions – is mostly absent.

But this is a pivotal moment, many activists say. They believe Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, known as the American Jobs Plan, is an opportunity to remove bureaucratic barriers and right decades of wrongs denying Indigenous Americans access to safe tap water and sanitation.

SUPERSTITION TO COVER FOR MISOGYNISTIC FEMICIDE
Two women tortured in latest sorcery-related attack in Papua New Guinea

Lyanne Togiba in Port Moresby 
THE GUARDIAN

4/27/2021

Two women have been brutally attacked in Port Moresby by up to 20 men after being accused of witchcraft, in the latest instance of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea.© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

The women were tortured and burnt with hot irons for hours on Sunday in a settlement at 5 Mile in the capital.

One woman managed to escape and ran down a hill before she was rescued by police. She said she was being interrogated by the male perpetrators and pressured to admit to the killing of another woman who died earlier in the week

.

© Photograph: David Gray/Reuters The attack occurred in Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby.

Related: 'They just slaughter them': how sorcery violence spreads fear across Papua New Guinea

Police found the second woman badly wounded and bound with ropes, lying in a garden. Both had very severe injuries.

Community leader Elliot Raphael said the incident was shocking and that a solution needed to be found to address the issue of violence against women immediately.




“All we know was that the ladies were picked up in the morning and interrogated, and from there we don’t know what happened before they were tortured and now this,” said Raphael.

The women were treated on the scene and taken to hospital. St John Ambulance chief executive Mathew Cannon confirmed the women were being treated for serious head and leg injuries. They will receive counselling support.

National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Supt Gideon Ikumu said up to 20 men fled before police arrived at the scene, but that the identities of the men were known to them.

“I strongly condemn these crimes and request the families and relatives of the two victims to come forward and provide their statements,” he said.

Sorcery violence – known as Sorcery Accusation Related Violence, or SARV – is persistent in PNG. This latest attack prompted outrage among senior police officers and politicians.

“People must change their mindset as we are living in a modern growing city. Police will ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” said Anthony Wagambie Jr, divisional commander NCD and central assistant commissioner.

NCD governor, Powes Parkop said: “I am totally disgusted and disappointed by the actions of the men who tortured the two women in the nation’s capital. I am appalled that men continue to believe and practice such barbaric practices in this day and age. The fact that it could still happen in the capital city shows we are a long way away from ending gender-based violence, and sorcery accusatory violence in particular.”

He said there was an urgent need to fund the National Gender Based Violence Secretariat and allocate funds to get the National Gender Based Violence strategy 2016-2026 rolled out as soon as possible.

“The strategy has been developed and these barbaric acts are allowed to continue because we have not funded the implementation of the strategy. It means we must multiply our efforts … to stop such violence and change behaviour and attitude. We are too slow at all levels.”

USA FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Profane Snapchat center of high court speech case

Duration: 02:17

After having a really bad day in 2017, Fourteen-year-old Brandi Levy posted a profanity-laced Snapchat post which has, improbably, ended up before the the U.S. Supreme Court in the most significant case on student speech in more than 50 years. (April 26)

20 anarchist communities around the world


Erin Daley 2021-04-15
ESPRESSO

ANARCHIST GAMES

20 anarchist communities around the world


Throughout history, communities with anarchist philosophies have sprung up around the world. Members have formed intentional communities, stateless societies, and autonomous regions, sometimes through tightly controlled memberships, other times through loose associations for a common cause. Here’s a look at 20 anarchist communities around the world, some that are still functioning today.



 © Instagram @christiania_freetown_denr

Freetown Christiania – Denmark

Founded in 1971 as a “permanent squat in a former military complex,” Freetown Christiania is an intentional community of roughly a thousand members located on nearly eight hectares (20 acres) in Copenhagen. The self-reliant, DIY community, famous for its tolerance for using and selling marijuana, has supported itself over the years by operating bars and restaurants, organizing cultural events, and manufacturing bicycles.

Still operating today, the “breakaway anarchist commune” is now subject to Danish regulations and struggles to maintain its original anti-establishment values due to rising costs caused by tourism and gentrification.

See photo on Instagra





During the Ukrainian Revolution (1917 to 1921)

Which overthrew the old regime, and the Bolshevik uprising which, after signing a peace treaty, “allowed the Germany and Austria-Hungary Axis alliance to occupy Ukraine,” Nestor Makhno, a prisoner released during this tumultuous period, attempted to set up a “stateless society organized under anarchist principles.”


In 1918, rejecting political parties, dictatorships, and a centralized state, the Makhnovists fought to reclaim the land to create worker-based communes and cooperatives. At their peak, they had amassed 100,000 troops and controlled an area occupied by roughly 7 million people. By 1921, however, they were defeated by the Bolsheviks.



Shinmin Prefecture – China

Between 1929 and 1931, in Manchuria’s rural province of Shinmin, 2 million Korean migrants operated their own autonomous anarchist region. Villagers set up their own form of government through assemblies and councils, which oversaw “agriculture, education, finance, military affairs, and health.”

Despite organizing a militia, the self-governing communities were ultimately unable to defend themselves against attacks by Japan and the Stalinists.






Zomia – Southeast Asia

You won’t find Zomia on an official map. The term was coined by Dutch historian Willem van Schendel in 2002 to describe the vast and remote mountainous area in Southeast Asia, spanning from the Vietnamese highlands to the Tibetan plateau and over to Afghanistan.

In his 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, Yale professor James C. Scott argues that the area’s 100 million inhabitants, made up of a wide mix of small ethnic groups, live in stateless “egalitarian societies” free from “taxation, conscription, and forced labor.”




Rojava – Syria

Rojava (the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is a decentralized autonomous region in northeastern Syria that is actively resisting the Islamic State. The area, established in 2012, is home to some 5 million residents—a mix of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis, and other groups who have come together to promote “radically democratic and decentralised self-governance, equity between genders, regenerative agriculture, a justice system based on reconciliation, and inclusion of minorities.”

The area is currently facing “extreme violence and genocide” from the Turkish invasion, which seeks to crush the movement and occupy Rojava.






Puerto Real – Spain

The seaport of Puerto Real in southern Spain is home to a unique community of shipyard workers who successfully organized and resisted the proposed shipyard closures with the help of the anarcho-syndicalist union CNT.

In 1987, the shipyard workers began engaging in direct action, including blockading the main road in protest. Building on their success, they went on to fight for other causes, including health and economic issues

This past summer, six blocks of downtown Seattle were occupied by protesters clashing with police following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police.

After police ceded the zone, known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or CHOP, the area became an impromptu, largely peaceful autonomous commune, with protesters making demands such as defunding the Seattle Police Department. Less than a month later, however, CHOP was dismantled by police, due in large part to the four shootings which took place there, two of which were fatal.

APRIL 28 DAY OF MOURNING/WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY (USA)

AKA THE DAY OF MOURNING IN CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD

Vaccinated people can ditch the mask outdoors in many cases: CDC

You can ditch the mask walking your dog or dining outside with friends if you are fully vaccinated from COVID-19. But keep it on for any outdoor crowded events like concerts, parades and sporting events.


Wearing a mask in public spaces indoors also remains a must.

That’s according to new guidance released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people considered fully immunized -– a milestone achieved two weeks after a person’s final vaccine shot.

CDC relaxes mask guidelines for vaccinated people outdoors

In a press briefing Tuesday announcing the change, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the latest research suggests transmission outdoors is rare, with indoor settings posing a "20-fold" increased risk. The CDC plans to further loosen suggested rules as more people become vaccinated and case numbers decline, she said.

"The more people who are vaccinated, the more steps we can take towards spending time with people we love doing the things we love to enjoy," Walensky told reporters on 

Tuesday.

MORE: As debate swirls, colleges weigh whether to mandate COVID-19 vaccines

The new guidelines could pave the way for states and local officials to relax mask mandates now that vaccination rates are climbing. Among the new federal recommendations is that vaccinated people can consider themselves safe attending church, shopping at the mall or going to the gym, although the CDC still recommends wearing a mask in those indoor settings.

The primary reason for urging caution, the CDC says, is because it’s not clear whether a vaccinated person can transmit the virus.

Studies show the vaccine is extraordinarily effective in preventing a person from getting seriously ill after becoming infected. But less is known about whether they could still carry the virus and infect others who aren’t vaccinated.

© Reading Eagle Vi/MediaNews Group via Getty Images Women sit at a table outside Farmhouse Kitchen, June 5, 2020 in West Reading, Penn.

"In public spaces, the vaccination status of other people or whether they are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 is likely unknown. Therefore, fully vaccinated people should continue to follow guidance to protect themselves and others, including wearing a well-fitted mask, when indoors or in an outdoor setting or venue where masks are required," according to the CDC.

Less than a third of the country has been fully vaccinated, meaning much of the population remains at risk. And while rising vaccinations are credited for helping to blunt the impact of the pandemic – states are reporting a nearly 17 percent decline in the last week -- the U.S. daily case average is still nearly 55,000.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said previously that he would want to see that number drop below 10,000 a day before states consider pulling back on mitigation measures like mask mandates. Until then, people can protect themselves by getting vaccinated, he said.

© Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images A man wears a mask as uses his cellphone in Times Square on March 5, 2020, in New York City.

"Even when you're talking about variants, indoors, outdoors -- get vaccinated and you will certainly have a degree of protection," Fauci said Tuesday.MORE: 3 things scientists have learned about vaccine hesitancy: Analysis

Last month, Walensky said she feared "impending doom" as cases appeared to be back on the rise after a massive post-holiday surge. On Tuesday, the director said that curve is now "stabilizing," which she attributes to rising vaccination numbers. But, she warned, future success could vary by region.

"Where we have low areas of vaccination, we are going to potentially see more outbreaks, which is why I think it's really, we have to be careful," she said.

The MIT study that said social distancing does little to stop COVID-19 indoors didn't look at the main way the virus spreads

Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce
cschusterbruce@businessinsider.com
4/27/2021

© RichLegg/Getty 

 High school students in a social distanced classroom. 

An MIT study published Tuesday suggested social distancing did little to limit airborne coronavirus transmission indoors.

But the study didn't look at whether social distancing stops coronavirus spreading via other routes.

The virus can also spread in larger droplets when people cough or sneeze, or via direct contact with surfaces.

A study published Tuesday in a world-leading medical journal said that 6-foot social distancing indoors did little to stop the spread of coronavirus indoors - but it didn't take into account all the ways the virus spreads.

Crucially, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study focused on airborne transmission of very small droplets. The study didn't look at whether distancing stops the virus spreading via two other possible routes: first, larger respiratory droplets, and second, direct contact.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronavirus mostly spreads through large respiratory droplets. This can happen when people are within about 6 feet or each other for a prolonged period, and an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, launching droplets from their mouth or nose into the air and onto other nearby people.

It is also possible to catch coronavirus by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and subsequently touching the mouth, nose, or eyes. This is called direct contact. This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, according to the CDC.

Social distancing could stop the virus from spreading in these ways, according to the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO).

Bryan Bzdek, research fellow at the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre at the University of Bristol, told Insider that physical distancing reduces exposure to the largest droplets, which "travel like cannonballs" and settle on the ground quickly.

He said distancing helps reduce exposure to smaller aerosol droplets, too, because their concentration is always highest nearer the source, i.e., a person's mouth and nose.

"If you are standing farther away, there is more time for that plume to dilute, reducing exposure," Bzdek explained.

The MIT researchers didn't advocate scrapping social distancing entirely. They said in a joint statement Sunday that the study indicated the 6-feet rule was "insufficient" to stop airborne transmission of coronavirus indoors.

In "well-mixed" spaces, where effectively everyone in the room is breathing the same air, no-one is safer from airborne pathogens at 60 feet apart than at 6 feet apart, Martin Byzant, professor of chemical engineering and applied mathematics at MIT, and John W. M. Bush, professor of applied mathematics, said.

People must also limit the time they spend in an indoor space, they said. According to the study, risk depended on the number of people in a space, the type of activity, ventilation, and mask-wearing.

Byzant and Bush created a guideline for policy makers, schools, and individuals to gauge the risk of catching coronavirus indoors based on these factors.

Bzdek told Insider that in a poorly ventilated space, like the ones considered in the study, the aerosol levels would gradually build up over time, increasing exposure with time spent in the room. But the fact remains that the guidance was based on just one route of transmission, and the authors' physics-based models assumed coronavirus particles always spread evenly throughout a room.

Howard Stone, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, who was not involved in the study, told MIT News that the analysis was a valuable tool for estimating the maximum time to spend indoors with others, but it was a "rough estimate."

Read the original article on Business Insider

MIT COVID study shows indoors, masks may be more important than social distancing
Sean Buckley 

CNET 4/27/2021

Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Stand at least six feet away from others. These are the guidelines many of us have lived by for the past year, all of them suggested in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, MIT researchers are taking a closer look at the six-foot recommendation to see how effective social distancing really is.

© Provided by CNET New MIT study examines the benefit of wearing masks. James Martin/CNET

The short answer? In certain situations, six feet of distance isn't enough to protect you on its own and you should probably still wear a mask.

The real answer? That's a little complicated. The paper says that in "well-mixed spaces, one is no safer from airborne pathogens at 60 ft than 6ft," but the context of this statement depends on the size of the space, how well ventilated it is and what the persons in the room are doing.

Researchers specifically designed the study to mimic the conditions of certain kinds of indoor "superspreading events," such as the Skagit Valley choir practice that resulted in the infecting 53 of 61 attendees. In other words, researchers were only targeting the transmission of small aerosol droplets in a "well-mixed" indoor space with only moderate ventilation -- one where the air moves around frequently enough that potentially infected particles don't have time to settle.

© Provided by CNET Martin Z. Bazant / John W. M. Bush

For example, the formula researchers devised for calculating indoor safety guidelines suggest that if an infected person was riding on a commercial airline with 100 other people, other passengers would be at risk of infection within 70 minutes. If all of the passengers wore masks, however, that space could be safe for up to 54 hours.

With data like that, it's possible to conclude the study says social distancing isn't effective, but the authors are quick to point out that the paper examines only one method of transmission under very specific conditions. In a statement, the researchers said that their findings had been "mischaracterized by some on social media and in the news," stating that the paper makes a point of calling out the benefits of social distancing and mask-wearing in conditions outside of the study's purview.

"The value of social distancing in limiting COVID-19 transmission by respiratory jets is made clear in the last section of our paper, 'Beyond the well-mixed room,'" they said. "Our study highlights that face masks can be an extremely effective indoor safety measure."

The researchers have built an online tool to help readers calculate how their formula estimates risk for differing room sizes, occupancy levels and mask-wearing behavior. 

Staying 6 feet apart indoors does almost nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19, MIT study finds

mguenot@businessinsider.com (Marianne Guenot) 

4/27/2021

© REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha 

People eating behind individual plastic screens at a restaurant in Bangkok on May 8. 

The widely used 6-foot rule does little to prevent COVID-9 exposure indoors, MIT researchers found.

The risk of exposure from an infected person is similar at 6 feet and 60 feet, one researcher said.

The study said mask-wearing, ventilation, and what a space is used for were bigger variables.

The widely used rule of staying 6 feet away from others does little to affect the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in indoor spaces, according to a new study out of MIT.

According to MIT researchers, the rule is based on an outdated understanding of how the coronavirus moves in closed spaces.

They said other variables - like the number of people in a space, whether they wear masks, what they are doing, and the level of ventilation - were much more important.

The 6-foot rule is used in various forms around the world: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises 6 feet of separation indoors and outdoors, while in the UK the figure is 2 meters. In much of Europe, the figure is 1 meter, which is also recommended as a minimum distance by the World Health Organization.

But while such distancing rules are easy to remember, and purport to suit any situation, the new study says they may not be that useful.

The study was released online ahead of its publication in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS on Tuesday.

It says a better way of controlling indoor exposure is to do individual calculations based on variables for that space.

In some cases, the exposure level might be the same at 6 feet as at 60 feet, one of the study authors has said.

Martin Bazant and John Bush, both MIT professors in applies mathematics, developed a formula to estimate how long it would take for a person to hit dangerous levels of exposure from one infected person entering a room.

The calculation is more sophisticated version of the traffic-light system previously proposed by MIT. It takes into account the number of people in the room, the size of the space, what they are doing, whether masks are being worn, and what kind of ventilation is in place.

Using this calculation, it could be that the level of exposure is high in some spaces even if people are more than 6 feet away. It could also be lower than expected.

"The distancing isn't helping you that much, and it's also giving you a false sense of security because you're as safe at 6 feet as you are at 60 feet if you're indoors. Everyone in that space is at roughly the same risk, actually," Bazant told CNBC.

Scientific understanding of how the coronavirus moves in the air has challenged earlier assumptions about how best to adapt to minimize its spread.

At the beginning of the pandemic, it was widely believed that the virus traveled via heavier droplets ejected during exhalation, sneezing, or speaking.

But evidence has long suggested that the virus instead floats around on lighter aerosol droplets that can stay suspended in the air and travel much farther than first thought.

In their calculation, the MIT researchers took into account the effect of having people in the room, and their behavior, on how long the virus would stay suspended in the air.

In a calm environment, these particles would slowly drift to the ground, the researchers said in their study.

But in an environment in which the air is moving around the room and people are talking, eating, singing, and sneezing, the drops can be suspended in the airflow and mixed throughout the room longer.

The effect can be counteracted by ventilation or filtration to get the virus particles out of circulation in the room.

A website made available by the researchers shows how this model works in different scenarios.

For example, if an infected person walks into a classroom hosting 25 people, none wearing masks and all speaking, everyone would be at risk from the coronavirus within 36 minutes, the website says. It doesn't matter if they follow the 6-foot rule.

By contrast, if all 25 people in that room were wearing a mask, the air would be safe to breathe for 20 hours, it said.

If they were all singing without a mask, they be at risk from the virus within three minutes.

Public-health bodies have started to acknowledge that the 6-foot rule is not a catchall. In March, the CDC advised that the 6-foot rule could be brought down to 3 feet in K-12 schools.

This weekend, the CDC also updated social-distancing guidance for children in summer camps, saying they can be within 3 feet of one another except when eating or drinking.

It also suggested that disinfection of surfaces might not be necessary in public spaces, urging an end to what some have called "hygiene theater."

As for rules dictating social distancing outdoors, Bazant said they are "kind of crazy," CNBC reported. The infected air "would be swept away," Bazant said, making the rule irrelevant.

Unless the space outdoors is crowded, Bazant said, he would feel comfortable being as close as 3 feet even without masks.

Experts have told Insider that when it is possible to stay more than 6 feet away from people, wearing a mask outside is not always necessary.
Read the original article on Business Insider