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Saturday, March 20, 2021

Because... Science

From where the six foot rule come?  I do not doubt that distance will reduce aerosol dispersion of the virus.  But why six feet?  Why not two meters.  I am sure that if six feet is good, 50 feet would be better, and 50 meters would reduce the risk to a lot of zeroes before the significant digit.  So how, exactly, was six feet picked?  Was there a study on this, or was someone at CDC spitballing?  

I ask because 3/19/21 AP reports that CDC says:

Students can safely sit just 3 feet apart in the classroom as long as they wear masks but should be kept the usual 6 feet away from one another at sporting events, assemblies, lunch or chorus practice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.

How many schools shut down because six feet made classrooms impractical?

I am not disputing that caution was appropriate when no one knew.  But can the six foot bubble be safely reduced for adults in public as well?  If not, what is the science that says this?
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5 comments:

  1. Billy OblivionMarch 20, 2021 at 9:41 AM

    > From where the six foot rule come?

    Last year I read (somewhere, can't find it) that actual real studies showed that expelled droplets from breathing, talking etc. made it about 18 inches from the mouth, so the people doing the study doubled that as a safety margin.

    My guess is that some bureaucrat doubled *that* as a safety margin.

    In Europe they requested a 1 meter "social distancing", which is that 18 inches, doubled and rounded to the nearest round measurement.

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  2. B March 20, 2021 at 1:55 PM

    Thre was no "science" about the 6 foor rule.....it was a "consensus" of people in Europe (2 meters) and was just an arbitrarily chosen number. No"science" of any kind involved. We are lucky they didn't make it 3 meters.....

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  3. B March 20, 2021 at 1:58 PM

    https://qz.com/1831100/where-does-the-six-feet-social-distancing-guideline-come-from/

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  4. John CunninghamMarch 20, 2021 at 8:33 PM

    Some imbecile apparatchik picked 6 feet from some nether regions. Just as the EU picked 1.5 m., And East Asia 1 m.

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  5. Paul SandMarch 21, 2021 at 5:56 AM

    Cato has something: https://www.cato.org/blog/fauci-paul-following-science

    The author points to a New York Times article which he claims (approvingly) contains "some highly nuanced thinking" on the issue. Haven't read it myself.

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