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Aerosol Science Research Center’s comics on virus-laden aerosols educate public on airborne transmission of viruses in 20 languages

Aerosol Science Research Center’s comics on virus-laden aerosols educate public on airborne transmission of viruses in 20 languages

15 Feb, 2022
Aerosol Science Research Center’s comics on virus-laden aerosols educate public on airborne transmission of viruses in 20 languages

Aerosol Science Research Center’s comics on virus-laden aerosols educate public on airborne transmission of viruses in 20 languages

Director of NSYSU Aerosol Science Research Center (ASRC) Associate Professor Chia C. Wang collaborated with an international team and published two papers on the airborne transmission of respiratory viruses in the journal of Science in 2020 and 2021, respectively. To help the general public and young students better understand the characteristics of virus-laden aerosols and preventive measures against their airborne spread, Associate Professor Wang has led her environmental education team to produce a series of popular science comics entitled "The Quest of the Virosols”, which explains the scientific mechanism of airborne transmission of virus-laden aerosols (aerosols) and effective preventive measures. The 16 comic strips have been translated into 20 languages and are now available all over the world.

 

Director Wang pointed out that the story of the comic series was told from the perspective of a virus-laden aerosol (i.e. virosol), which shows how virosols are produced from the expiratory activities of infected people and released into the environment, pointing out the commonalities and differences between virosols and droplets – another character of the comic. The virosols in the comic strip explain in a humorous way that they can float in the air and travel to different rooms following the ventilation system and the airflow direction, while droplets do not have this capability.

 

The virosols in the comic generously disclose favorable situations that can facilitate their airborne spread leading to new infections, such as: crowding, people not wearing masks properly, only cleaning surfaces without cleaning the air, and using desk shields. Finally, the virosols point out in an easy-to-understandable way a variety of preventive measures that can effectively stop the spread of virosols, such as emphasizing on air cleaning, filtration and disinfection, as well as paying attention to the direction of the airflow and ventilation systems and their possible impacts.

 

"The comic series was originally produced in Chinese and English only, however, as soon as it was launched on social media platforms we received enthusiastic responses from all over the world. Volunteers from many countries contacted us to express their desire to translate the comic into their local languages.” Director Wang said that to make the comic strips available to people around the world, she collaborated with international partners on the translation of the comics into 20 languages, including German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Japanese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Filipino, Sinhala, and Catalan. It was truly an amazing global effort to accomplish the task within just 4 months. Schools and hospitals in several countries have even printed out the comic series and posted them in the corridors for students and teachers, medical staff, patients, and accompanying family members to read.

 

Director Wang mentioned that recently, the team of Aerosol Science Research Center collaborated with an animation team to produce a 13-minute animation to promote knowledge regarding airborne transmission of virus-laden aerosols. Director Wang pointed out that the importance of aerosol transmission (also called airborne transmission) of viruses was underappreciated and only began to be recognized after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because existing precautionary measures, mostly designed to prevent droplet and fomite (contact) transmission, are not effective in preventing airborne transmission and the numerous superspreading events. In fact, airborne transmission of many common respiratory viruses has been well documented in the past. Finally, Director Wang reminded that airborne transmission is not difficult to prevent, but it is a necessary step to recognize the presence and risk of virus-laden aerosols so that effective aerosol precautionary measures can be implemented. Through the promotion of popular science comic series and animation, she hopes to help more people understand the nature of virus-laden aerosols and learn how to take action to protect oneself and others, to end the global pandemic as soon as possible. It is the sincere hope of the ASRC team to motivate more people, governmental and civil entities to begin to pay more attention to improving and maintaining good air quality in the future.

 

 

Explainer comics: The Quest of the Virosols http://aerosol.nsysu.edu.tw/en/scopes/108

Animation: The Quest of the Virosols: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFmxvZY69zI

Review article: Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses: C. C. Wang et al., Science 373, eabd9149(2021). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd9149