RE:

We thank our colleague Allison Yan for her helpful letter and are pleased she has found our protocol both useful and practical.  Indeed, the protocol described in our article was developed in the very early months of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020.  At that time, high emphasis was placed on the possibility of fomite transmission and droplet transmission (vs. aerosol transmission) of Covid-19, and our original protocol reflected this.  Both of these premises, however, have been called into question as the pandemic has evolved.  Fomite transmission has been de-emphasized[1][2], and many authors have theorized that airborne transmission via aerosol is more common than originally thought. [3][4]This has implications for both the procedures in the protocol and the type of PPE needing to be worn.  In light of this, we have revised our protocol (see Table linked in article).

Brian Kerley, Lana Tan, Denise Marshall, Cindy O’Neill, Anne Bialachowski and José Pereira