[ExI] 23andME - Company issues: privacy

[BillK]

On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 5:13 PM, spike wrote:
> The white stuff in this photo is a bodily fluid and it is in the air.
>  Ebola gets in all the bodily fluids.  That big white aerosol cloud in the photo
> would contain viruses if the sneezer is infected.  If a virus can be spread by
> bodily fluids, and saliva is a bodily fluid, and saliva goes airborne every time
> a person sneezes, and anyone in the area inhales that aerosol, then the
> viruses in those droplets enter the bystanders lungs and throat.  We can
> scarcely imagine a more optimal surface for a virus to land: nasal tissues,
> the throat, the bronchioles, the alveoli, all of which are well protected, moist,
> highly vascular tissues, a playground for bacteria and viruses.
>  Please, where did I go wrong in that line of reasoning?
>
> Please, how in the hell can we be so DEAD certain sneezing is not an ebola vector?

It is the size of the particle that makes the difference. Airborne
transmission means small particles that can drift in the air for
hours, to be inhaled by passers-by. This applies to diseases like
Influenza, Tuberculosis, Measles, etc.

These airborne particles are too small for the Ebola virus to live in.
Which is why Ebola is not defined as being airborne transmission.

All that being said.......   Ebola lives in vomit, diarrhoea and
saliva which cannot remain airborne. So physical contact with these
fluids is necessary. However, projectile vomiting is so-called for
good reason. Basically, don't go near an Ebola infected patient
without wearing a hazmat suit. And you need to be trained to wear
these. It is a two person task to put one on and to take it off safely
afterwards. And they are incredibly hot inside. The wearing limit is
less than an hour at a time.

So you've got to be a bit of a hero to care for Ebola patients.


BillK