Source: The Atlantic.
1: The Germans have had their act together on this from Day 1. Please see Teutonic Two-Tier Testing, among other posts.
2: Aerosol spread is the bugaboo that the US CDC cannot deal with. (See front page here if you don’t understand what aerosol (airborne) spread of COVID-19 is.) I have been noting the idea of aerosol transmission of COVID-19 for weeks now. It’s obvious that it’s a risk, it’s not clear how frequently it occurs. It’s clear that the CDC will not publicly acknowledge it. Even if it’s impossible to explain the spread of COVID-19 without it.
3: I have repeatedly noted the super-spreader event that occurred with the Mount Vernon, Washington choir, which could not possibly have been anything but aerosol spread.
4: Singing produces as much aerosol as coughing.
That’s all stuff that I’ve been referencing for weeks here.
5: Now go read this: Germany will allow religious services, but they ban singing.
Please note that:
5.1: They had their own choir event: ” … and in Berlin, where 59 out of 78 singers from the choir of Berlin’s Protestant cathedral went down with the virus – have offered plenty of anecdotal evidence that singing in choirs has contributed to the spread of coronavirus in some communities.”
But, unlike the USA, their government epidemiologists paid attention.
5.2: ” … despite repeated warnings by leading epidemiologists that singing is as dangerous as coughing for spreading the virus.”
Why? Because their Federal government is smart. Angela Merkel is not only the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, she’s a bona-fide scientist. They are looking at the same research that I have been looking at, and they have come to the same conclusion that I have.
So the Germans can start from a basis of facts, and then discuss the policy merits of allowing singing in large (cathedral) spaces or not.
Meanwhile, our Federal government remains clueless. And if we rely on that Federal government for information, we end up just as clueless as our leaders.
I’m ashamed for the USA. I’m ashamed that the Brits are going to beat us to a vaccine, by half a year or more. I’m ashamed that the Germans have figured out that choral singing is a risk. While here in the USA, we’re doing our damnedest to ignore basic science.
Stupidity gets punished, in the long run. I suspect we’ll be paying for this for the next generation.
