[Heyitsrick]

Originally Posted by Bucco

On the debate.......they were well apart much more than is required or mandated by health officials.

Seems like there's some real concerns over what constitutes a safe distance - particularly when Covid-19 is carried by the much, much smaller "aerosol" format (vs. larger droplets).

From ScientificAmerica a few days ago:

This feels like a lopsided fight. In one corner, we have scientists, epidemiologists, infectious-disease physicians, clinicians, engineers—many different experts in the medical community, that is—arguing that the spread of COVID-19 by aerosols (that is, tiny droplets that can remain airborne long enough to travel significantly farther than the six-foot separation we’ve been told to observe) is both real and dangerous. In the other, it’s the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), which until very recently have allowed only that aerosol spread is possible, not necessarily likely.

And while watching experts going against governmental agencies isn’t always riveting stuff, this particular battle is terribly important. It has significant implications for how we as a country handle this epidemic, and what decisions we make going forward—and those decisions need to be made sooner, not later.

On some level, this is a discussion of droplets versus aerosols. You’ve probably heard plenty this year about droplets: they’re larger in size and may be exhaled by someone talking, shouting, singing, coughing or sneezing. These droplets don’t travel far and fall quickly to the ground, one reason why a “social distance” of roughly six feet is seen as a safe one.

Aerosols, on the other hand, are tiny by comparison, nearly 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. They’re spread at far greater distances—20 to 30 feet—and can linger in the air for minutes to hours, infecting others.

Protecting against COVID's Aerosol Threat - Scientific American