Plexiglass dividers have been ubiquitous at bars and restaurants for over a year. Are they actually protecting anyone from COVID-19?
, are relatively safe compared to virtually any other seemingly confined indoor space.)
And while physical barriers are effective at blocking big droplets released from a person’s nose or mouth when they cough or sneeze, they’re essentially useless at blocking the spread of aerosols within a contained room. In a pre-print paper , British researchers determined that “screens are unlikely to provide any direct benefit in reducing exposure to the virus from droplets or aerosols when people are already located at 2 meters or greater or where they are not face to face.
Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and an expert on viral transmission,to think about exhaled aerosols in terms of a plume of cigarette smoke. With a plastic barrier, “the smoke simply drifts around them, so they will give the person on the other side a little more time before being exposed to the smoke.
In other words, plexiglass screens may provide protection from the bigger, wetter droplets expelled during a sneeze, but they provide relatively little protection from aerosols. Worse, barriers may also disrupt the normal airflow in a room, creating pockets of space where aerosols can accumulate. In a properly ventilated indoor space, exhaled aerosols will ordinarily disperse within 15 to 30 minutes and be replaced by fresh air.
Plexiglass barriers or no, medical experts believe that at this point in the pandemic, with the delta wave continuing to surge, dining out is extremely risky for the unvaccinated; the latest data on breakthrough infections indicate that in areas with substantial transmission,
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