An-Najah News - Nablus - People need to keep a distance of about 1.8 meters, regardless of the person they will meet outside their homes, and it has been adopted as a measure of social isolation in order to slow the coronavirus outbreak.

But many wonder why we need to keep this kind of distance, and whether it is really effective to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Studies show that the virus can remain in the air for 3 hours, can travel through contaminated surfaces, and spread easily through coughing and sneezing. On this basis, a determination of 1.8 meters was made as a safety distance to limit transmission of the virus.

One scientist warns that guidelines for the social distance to stay 1.8 meters from others may be totally inadequate, saying that the coronavirus can travel about 8 meters and last for hours.

Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has researched cough and sneezing dynamics for years, commented in a recent research that current guidelines are based on ancient paradigms of the 1930s.

Bourouiba warns that "droplets carrying the pathogen of all sizes can go from 7 meters 8 meters", rather than the assumed safety of 1.8 meters.

Her research, published in the American Medical Association, also indicates that "droplets that settle along a path can contaminate surfaces," and she indicated that "droplet residue or nuclei" may remain suspended in the air for hours.

According to a report released in 2020 from China, Bourouiba said that "virus particles can be found in respiratory systems in hospital rooms for COVID-19 patients."

Bourouiba warns that the current guidelines are "overly simplified" and "may limit the effectiveness of the proposed interventions" against the deadly pandemic.

She added that it is particularly urgent for health care workers, who argue over her report, that they face "an unimaginable potential exposure" while dealing with patients and the dead.

In a statement to USA Today she said: "There is an urgent need to review the guidelines currently provided by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the needs of prevention equipment, especially for health-care workers on the front lines."

The World Health Organization notes that about one meter is sufficient to maintain safety, for USA Today, and it welcomed the studies, saying: "The World Health Organization carefully monitors evidence emerging on this critical topic and will update the scientific summary whenever more information is available."