Daily Admin Update
Day - 61
Good Morning
Happy Friday! It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day out there. I hope that you are able to geet you and your kids out into the fresh air and sunshine.
ASB's weekly LIVE news is right about now from 9:45 to - 10:30. Join us to see who the special guest speaker is this week, find out what national day it is, hear a funny joke, and connect with your ASB community. We also excited to announce that we will be gifting two gift cards of $30 to Pizza Port and Clairemont Surf Shop to two lucky callers who join this call! Winners will be announced at the end. Thank you as always for supporting ASB.
All grades and parents are welcome to join us. Here is the link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93952516397?pwd=NGdkK1FrQXNYcG5hcXpTY0VJemk2QT09
Meeting ID: 939 5251 6397
Password: ASBEEEE
I hope you have a great weekend with your families.
Stay safe,
Sarah
Talking Can Generate Coronavirus Droplets That Linger Up to 14 Minutes -A new study shows how respiratory droplets produced during normal conversation may be just as important in transmitting disease, especially indoors.
Coughs or sneezes may not be the only way people transmit infectious pathogens like the novel coronavirus to one another. Talking can also launch thousands of droplets so small they can remain suspended in the air for eight to 14 minutes, according to a new study.
The research, published Wednesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help explain how people with mild or no symptoms may infect others in close quarters such as offices, nursing homes, cruise ships and other confined spaces. The study’s experimental conditions will need to be replicated in more real-world circumstances, and researchers still don’t know how much virus has to be transmitted from one person to another to cause infection. But its findings strengthen the case for wearing masks and taking other precautions in such environments to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Scientists agree that the coronavirus jumps from person to person most often by hitching a ride inside tiny respiratory droplets. These droplets tend to fall to the ground within a few feet of the person who emits them. They may land on surfaces like doorknobs, where people can touch lingering virus particles and transfer them to their face. But some droplets can remain aloft, and be inhaled by others.
Elaborate experiments have revealed how coughing or sneezing can produce a crackling burst of air mixed with saliva or mucus that can force hundreds of millions of influenza and other virus particles into the air if a person is sick. A single cough can propel about 3,000 respiratory droplets, while sneezing can generate as many as 40,000.
To see how many droplets are produced during normal conversation, researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the University of Pennsylvania, who study the kinetics of biological molecules inside the human body, asked volunteers to repeat the words “stay healthy” several times. While the participants spoke into the open end of a cardboard box, the researchers illuminated its inside with green lasers, and tracked bursts of droplets produced by the speaker.
The laser scans showed that about 2,600 small droplets were produced per second while talking. When researchers projected the amount and size of droplets produced at different volumes based on previous studies, they found that speaking louder could generate larger droplets, as well as greater quantities of them.
Although the scientists did not record speech droplets produced by people who were sick, previous studies have calculated exactly how much coronavirus genetic material can be found in oral fluids in the average patient. Based on this knowledge, the researchers estimated that a single minute of loud speaking could generate at least 1,000 virus-containing droplets.
The scientists also found that while droplets start shrinking from dehydration as soon as they leave a person’s mouth, they can still float in the air for eight to 14 minutes.
A virus battle along political lines
Partisan fights over the virus are growing, with Democrats urging caution and Republicans calling for a swift return to normalcy. In Michigan, armed protesters at the State Capitol led officials to cancel the legislative session. And a decision by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court overruling a statewide stay-home order sent people flooding out to bars.