If the WHO had acknowledged from the start that COVID was airborne, it wouldn’t have been the mess we are currently in. Masking would be more prevalent and these indoor air quality measures could have been implemented faster. Health authorities could also have given more better advice, something other than “wash your hands”.

What also bugs me that even though indoor air quality has been extensively researched here (this study as part of the E3 Pandemic Response project), this knowledge doesn’t properly transfer into political decision-making. Many health authorities have given advice like “wash your hands”, “wear a mask if you want to”, but it’s mostly anchored to the dreaded droplet dogma. The media has the talking heads from the THL (The Institute of Health and Welfare, “our CDC”) spouting their COVID minimizer propaganda that is disconnected from reality, and that has lead to downright disinformation being spread. But as COVID cases have been rising here, so has the sense that the health authorities haven’t done their job properly, and the society is finally waking up from the manufactured illusion of COVID being somehow “over”.

We are certainly living in interesting times.