so when they stay far apart from each other last spring in the name of public health, it was an enormous sacrifice whether or not we understood it at the tim. but because this was a trusting and law-abiding country, we obey that order. we barely grumbled about it. we assumed they knew best. 6 feet from each other. that was social distancing. it was the law and most of us follow the law. but where did that law come from? who the of the scientific research that determine 6 feet is that safest distance apart from other people that you could be? someone should have asked that last spring, but as far as we know, no one did ask. it turns out the research that form the basis of that law came from a german high genesis called carl flew. it was he who decided 6-foot separations were necessary for the spread of pathogens. the cdc went with his judgment. with the cdc did not tell us is that carl had been dead 100 years. his research on social distancing was published in the 19th century
name of public health, it was an enormous sacrifice, whether or not we understood it at the time. but because this was a trusting and law-abiding country, we obey that order. we barely grumbled about it. idwe assumed they knew best. 6 feet from each other. that was social distancing. it was the law and most of us follow the law. but where did that law come from? who did the scientific research that determined 6 feet was the safest distance apart from other people that you could be? someone should have asked that last spring, but as far as we know, no one did ask. it turns out the research that form the basis of that law came from a german high genesis called coral fluke. it n was he who decided 6-foot separations were necessary for the spread of pathogens. the cdc went with his judgment. with the cdc did not tell us is that carl had been dead 100 years. his research on social distancing was published in the 19th century before most americans had electricity or indoor plumbing
when these guidelines were last updated. we ve had vaccines since then. more therapeutics. so, if you think about that generation time, the time when you re infected and the time when you re most likely to transmit, if you think about alpha, that is said to be five days. delta, four days. and omicron is thought to be three days. and even if we get a transmission, we have, you know, monoclonal antibodies, we have increasing oral options that are going to be away in days and we are more comfortable with treating covid. let s speak to david edwards he s an aerosol scientist and a harvard university professor and bioengineer. hejoins us from he joins us from paris. hejoins us from paris. does it make sense, reducing the isolation period from ten days down to five days? thank you very much. i understand the logic. it s important for people to understand that the omicron
and the variant has made people quite cautious about what they re doing. up to date percent of the people we surveyed said they would do something, such as a lateral flow test. so i d urge people to continue doing that as much as possible and to be careful in general. we should encourage that even more, especially now that more partying is going to happen over new year. happen over new year. thanks for our happen over new year. thanks for your time- happen over new year. thanks for your time. thanks. health officials in the us have halved the recommended isolation time for people with asymptomatic covid 19, from 10 to five days though the center for disease control says this must be followed by people wearing a mask whenever they re with others for a further five days. the measure is designed to alleviate disruptions caused by staff shortages because of infections. david edwards is an aerosol scientist and a harvard university professor and bioengineer. we asked him about the deci