About us

How did the idea of making this request at Change come about?

The idea came up on twitter, among a group of people who previously did not know each other at all, but who had in common their concern about the little importance given by local institutions to the airborne transmission. This was not simply anecdotal at the local level, but the same scenarios were and are repeated in the vast majority of countries.

For example, in Spain many schools are prohibited from opening windows or putting air filters, the same happens in schools in other countries. Another example is the health care personnel without adequate protection measures, in our group there are about 10 doctors and they told us their experiences.

The reason is the same: local institutions refuse to put in place adequate measures because, according to the WHO, there is no evidence and transmission by aerosols is not a major route. At an individual level we are very limited, so that the measures are massive and reach the whole society, we need them to come from above and for that the WHO has to update its recommendations and communications.

For these reasons, we decided to launch the petition in which we ask the WHO to urgently disseminate the importance of aerosol transmission. It is a vital issue and requires immediate action.

#COVIDisAirborne is actually a # that already existed. We decided to adopt it as our flag because of a tweet ("FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.") in which the WHO said that COVID19 is not transmitted by aerosols, and that to say that if it is transmitted by aerosols is misinformation. That statement contradicts what we see and live around us and what experts in the field say.

The group started in mid-October and then it took shape with more people joining from all over the world, people from all walks of life, conscientious and committed people. Our idea materialized with the petition on November 2nd.

The statements of the WHO regarding the transmission routes are confusing and lead to a situation that causes serious damage, with unnecessary infections and deaths. On February 11 Dr. Tedros said that COVID19 is transmitted by aerosols: Dr. Tedros: COVID-19 is airborne, but something happened (that we didn't explain) so he then said bluntly on March 28 that it is not transmitted by aerosols: FACT: COVID-19 is not airborne, contrary even to the precautionary principle. Since then, they have gradually loosened their position, for example now they start mentioning ventilation a little more, but not enough to get the message across to the whole population and they do not explain why it is important. Dr. Ryan said a few days ago that it is not important for the population to know the route of transmission, but rather the risk situations. We do not agree with that statement: citizens need to know how the virus is transmitted. We live in a community, and as the German virologist Christian Drosten says, we all need to know the basic principles of the transmission of this virus. It is not enough to impose rules that people do not understand.

In our group we have been lucky enough to keep ourselves informed by following the experts in the field, we know why ventilation is important, we know and understand why it is necessary to wear the mask well adjusted even when keeping the safety distance indoors, but this information is only available to a few who, like us, have known how to access it. Not everyone has the same resources or access to information, so this is leading to many social inequalities. As a result, schools, nursing homes, our workplaces, our public settings, are far below the level of safety they should have in a pandemic situation airborne transmitted. Information needs to reach the entire population on a massive scale, and for that, we need WHO to ACT.

Organisers & Petitioners

Organisers

in alphabetical order

Jessica Bassett Allen US

(Spokesperson in English)

Sergio Coscolín Navarro Spain

(Spokesperson in Spanish)

Maarten De Cock Belgium

Lucía Lara Spain

Jonathan
Mesiano-Crookston
Canada

Peter Metzinger Switzerland

Dana Parish US


Logo

Vittorio Durola Italy


Translations

Stephane Bilodeau Français

Lucía L & Sergio C Español

Christine Wichert Deutsch

S. Koloutsou-Vakakis Greek

秦野  Japanese

Dr. Hongwan Li Chinese

李弘琬 繁軆字 · 简体字

Dr. Soyoung Kim Korean

김소영 한국어

D. Munkhjargal Mongolian

Д.Мөнхжаргал Монгол

Dr. Ian Mitchelle De Vera Filipino

Vu Ngoc Khanh Tiếng Việt

Dao Suwansang Janjaroen Тайська Thai

Motahar Hossain বাংলা Bengali

Volodymyr V. Tarabara український

Ukrainian

Ms. Madina Koshtayeva pусский Russian

қазақ Kazak

Dr. Nima Afshar-Mohajer Persian

فارسی نیما افشارمهاج


Petitioners

in alphabetical order

Theo Allen US

Vicente Baos Spain

Noor Bari Australia

Jose Manuel Bautista Spain

Robert Bean Canada

Keith Begg Ireland

Angelo Luigi Camillo Italy

Charlotta Cederblad Sweden

David Eldredge US

David Elfstrom Canada

David N. Fisman Canada

Malgorzata Gasperowicz Canada

Barry Hunt Canada

John Johnston Australia

Cristina Legarda Spain

Lazarus Long US

Dirk Monsieur Belgium

Geert Noels Belgium

Ali Nouri US

Ligia Alejandra Prieto Argentina

Katrin Rabiei Sweden

Lize Raes Belgium

Conor Ruzycki Canada

Jorge Sanchez Spain

Sara Segovia Spain

María Isabel Tapia Spain

Jennifer Tomaszewski Canada

Irene Tosetti Switzerland

Daniel Vak Contreras Chile

Benjamin Veness Australia

Daniel Wassmer Switzerland

Supporting Organizations