DC Metro Theater Arts: I first learned of Dr. Linsey Marr when I read a startling opinion piece that appeared in the New York Times July 30: As “a civil and environmental engineer who studies how viruses and bacteria spread through the air,” she wrote, “I believe that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via aerosols matters much more than has been officially acknowledged to date.”
2 comments:
Even though everyone has an idea about how transitive covid-19 virus is, reading this article definitely gave me a better idea about how easily it can be transmitted from one person to another, thereby stressing on the need for social distancing practices and wearing a mask anytime one is in public.
Dr. Marr, a renowned name in the field of airborne viruses, talks about how the virus is spread in indoor spaces with poor ventilation services or where a lot of people have gathered, and social distancing cannot be practiced. She stresses on how important it is for everyone to understand the hard truth about this virus and try to follow the directions to the best of their abilities in an attempt to contain this virus. And for theater industries, it seems like the most important thing to now concentrate on, given how devastating the impact of the pandemic has been on the industry and its employees.
This article really solidified my understanding that I have gained about the nature of COVID itself. It seems pretty intuitive to me that the airborne nature of the disease itself is largely one of the factors in making it spread as it has, and I didn’t know that the CDC wasn’t officially supporting that on their website. It’s even more discerning that they finally posted this on Sept 18th, only to take it down a few days later. It deeply concerns me of the risk that this is putting on everyone. Also it doesn’t seem surprising that the regular surface cleansing procedures are largely performative hygiene theatre. I do think talking with this expert was a really great opportunity for the theatre communities because so often we reconstruct other industry safety guidelines to suit our own needs. The directness of the conversation and ability to ask theatre specific questions to such a highly regarded member of the scientific community is tremendously insightful.
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