A thread about core measures against COVID-19- people are asking if they need to be changed because the variants of concern situation. I'd be happy to be corrected but I think it is still unclear WHY these transmit more which will help is redesign of strategies...but for now:
1/

Until we know if variants are they worse because of the amount of virus, timing of high load, how it attaches to body cells or so on, people should:
1) take extra care in the number of contacts they have (not being in any contact with a case = not a case, pretty much!)
2/

2) keep greater distance from others
3) be face to face for a shorter time
4) think about quality of our masks.

We don't know how much each of these things affect the new variant but is it clear that these core strategies matter...
3/

The 1-2 meter, 15 minute guidance was to give people a rule of thumb to decrease the odds of infection, but of course people could still be infected at 2.1+ meters or at 0-14 minutes of exposure.

It would just make sense to be extra careful where you can be right now.
4/

Sadly - there are not yet official applied standards for cloth masks. Studies suggest masks that fit well without gaping, have three layers (it is nice but not crucial if one is a polypropylene, spunbound filter layer), that you breathe THROUGH not around can be good filters.
5/

It is unclear if N95 masks can add protection against community respiratory viral illness in field studies, but in any case, they only work as advertised if they are fit tested, and a poorly fitting respirator (N95 or KN95) mask may be less good than a non N95 mask.
6/

Particle count study, self checking fit wasn't accurate, 4/7 people didn't fit any K/N95, and poorly fit respirators were comparable with surgical and cloth masks. Also, their surgical masks / cloth masks weren't top quality but did OK anyway...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33481870/ 
7/

We will learn more about what the new "rules of thumb" for protection will be, BUT carefully doing these core basics WELL right now it will undoubtedly help us prevent these variants from taking hold.
Let's keep our eyes on the prize and get to the end of vaccine rollout safely!