We have been looking for the
Holy Grail all this time. We worked with
Total Immersion at the beginning of our journey –Terry Laughlin, Glenn Mills
and the rest of coaches, in many clinics around Mexico. We went to learn more watching and listening
to Dave Salo, always searching for the mystery –trying to feel the water. We invited Paul Bergen to come to our town to learn from him. We
decided to look someplace else and went to see Gennadi Tourestki (Popov’s
mastermind). We learned a lot about kayaks,
using the shoulders to propel the body, and the understanding of swimming on top of the wave from Touretski. Tourestki let us know that
the search should continue when he took Ian Thorpe. Thorpe tried to return to competitive
swimming after long hiatus then. We never
found the Holy Grail until we saw Gregorio Paltrinieri swimming. The analysis done by Effortless Swimming helps to understand what feeling the water
means in the case of Gregorio.
Gregorio developed his own
style by feeling the water. Fortunately,
his coach did not modify much and let him feel water. Gregorio knew and understood by feeling the water
that the Holy Grail of swimming was to project the body to the front the most
effective way. He found his own fulcrum
and front there projects his body trying to perturb the water the least
possible. He also knew that without
kicking he can reach and sustain 90 strokes per minute, moving his body as
Michelangelo moving his brush. The Holy
Grail is feeling the water; but unfortunately, we need to be like Michelangelo
to be able to perform well.
I let you with my favorite
player, Judith Polgar, who knows that to be like Michelangelo we need three things:
work, perseverance and passion.
The pandemic helps to see
what is useful and what we thought it was. People have died because of believing in useless
theories about performance; the concept of a good doctor versus a bad one.A doctor who had good grade at school does
not mean much if he/she is unable to perform practicing.A good doctor in times of COVID 19 should be
effective regardless of grades and we see it clearly now; it is more about
being passionate to the profession to be able to face the unknown without
much fear and with willingness to perform well.Fear was the first thing doctors experienced in front of the pandemic. Patients
should not die from COVID the way it has happened because of our fear that paralyzed
us. The use of steroid and other medications to treat COVID patients is an art
based on a lot of experience with just a little bit of theory.Things were very novel and we needed to be
guided by our experience; our instinct that developed over many years of seeing
patient as mysteries.Boris Pasternak’s
master novel, Dr. Zhivago, is about that.Performance in triathlon is about the passion for the sport.Pasternak said the following about revolutionary
Russians:
They don't in any way measure up to their
exalted calling. In fact, they've fallen short of it but – difficult as it is
for me to understand – a modern sophist might say
that these last years have actually demanded a reduction in conscience and
feeling in the name of greater intelligibility. Yet now the very spirit of the times demands great,
courageous purity. And these men are ruled by trivial routine. Subjectively,
they're sincere and conscientious. But I find it increasingly difficult to take
into account the personal aspect of their convictions. I'm not out on my own –
people treat me well. But all that only holds good up to a point. It seems to
me that I've reached that point.[22]
The title of this “post”
comes after two things: The historical revision of David and Goliath by Malcolm
Gladwell (below), and the article published at Medscape on July 30,2020:
COVID-19 Data Dives: Why Arguments
Against SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Transmission Don't Hold Water
The Medscape article showed
the ignorance in the medical establishment after reviewing two articles related
to the spread of coronavirus by José Luis Jiménez: one was written by the WHO,
and the other one appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA).Both of them did not mention by
ignorance or negligence, or because they did not want to mention, that the main
route of Covid 19 spreading is through aerosol.These institutions looked like goliath--
following Gladwell analysis, they were unable to perform what the only raison
d'être for both of them is: “the analysis and publication of the best
research possible.” Our guidelines regarding training in the pandemic considers aerosol as the main route of infection:
We started learning since the beginning of the pandemic about the virus, to face the situation. We have learned the following:
1)The virus is transmitted via aerosol in addition to saliva drops. Why? We have the story about the chorus rehearsing and apparently keeping the distance between two people. They said: “No one sneezed or coughed.” One-day rehearsal, 60 people practicing, 45 sick, two deaths. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/01/us/washington-choir-practice-coronavirus-deaths/index.htmlThis is more anecdotal, if you wish, but we have other sources of information.
The article written by José
Luis Jiménez made the mentioned above institutions looked like Goliath.José, like David, armed with his slingshot killed
them.This situation is not to be
cheerful about it; but on the contrary, we should be sad about what we are
living.José’s article shows how the establishment
deteriorated over the years: “compadres” were invited to do research or to peer
reviewed research.Unfortunately, this is
not only related to this subject but it is present in all our existence: “compadres” are
invited to do things that they barely know.We have two good examples of how they do it: Trump and López Obrador.The International Unions are also a good
example, look at the IAAF and FIFA, to mention two that currently are having
what we have known for years, corruption and more corruption.Let go back into business.We will discuss José’s article.
“I
am an aerosol scientist. I have spent a lot of time examining the arguments
from some that aerosols play only a very minor role in the transmission of
SARS-CoV-2 -- and presenting the evidence that rebuts this claim. A recent article in JAMA argues
that aerosols are not an important transmission pathway for SARS-CoV-2. While
the article raises good questions, the arguments against aerosols are not
consistent with the best science. Here's why I say that:
Aerosol
size. Most important, a good understanding of aerosol physics, airflow,
and dilution is needed to interpret the behavior of potentially infectious
aerosols in complex real-world situations… However, the actual size of droplets
that fall to the ground that quickly correspond to sizes larger than 50 μm, so
10 times the size and 1000 (!) times the mass given in the article. This
fundamental error has been repeated for decades in guidance from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization
(WHO) and in medical papers, despite the correct physics having been figured out by Wells in
1934 and the error having been pointed out many times by other
scientists.
This video from Ryan Davis, PhD,
gives a more accurate picture of the behavior of ~50 μm aerosols in the air.
Even at this size, the aerosols do not fall very rapidly to the ground. For
aerosols of 5 μm to fall to the ground quickly, as shown in a short animation from
the WHO, gravity on Earth would have to be 100 times larger than it
is. This happens...on some stars. A 5 μm aerosol can actually stay suspended in
air for 30 minutes indoors.
If 5-μm aerosols fell to the ground
as stated by the authors and as shown in the WHO's video, we would not have to
worry about aerosol (particulate matter) pollution, because a large fraction of
it would fall to the ground so quickly. We also would not have to worry about
Saharan dust reaching Florida, because much of the dust mass is composed of aerosols in this size
range.
The
authors further instruct us that "[a]erosols are smaller particles (≤5 μm)
that...are small enough and light enough to remain suspended in the air for
hours (analogous to pollen)." This is curious, given that pollen ranges
in size from 15 to 200 μm. If pollen aerosols, being larger than 5 μm, actually fell
to the ground within 1-2 meters, pollen allergies would not be a problem
either. But pollination for many plant species would be very difficult too.
Relying on medical doctors for advice about aerosols is like relying on me, an
aerosol scientist, for medical advice: not a good idea…
The
conversation with a smoker is a qualitative example. But quantitative studies
with very detailed physics have been published that estimate
exposure to droplets and aerosols in a close proximity situation (often
referred to as "close contact," although physical contact is
typically not involved)…
Therefore, aerosols probably dominate "close contact"
transmission when talking. And talking is the most relevant situation for
SARS-CoV-2, which has a major fraction of transmission by asymptomatic and
presymptomatic carriers who do not regularly cough. These are the conclusions
of a modeling study — it was notably rigorous —using well-established inputs:
Newton's laws of motion; the law of gravity; the well-known laws of air drag on
moving aerosols; and well-established measurements on the sizes, amounts, and
speeds of the expired aerosols. This is not difficult, uncertain physics, such
as trying to quantify the expansion of the universe or the mass of neutrinos;
it is very well established and tested. Like any scientific study, it has
uncertainties, but those are unlikely to reach factors of 100-1000…
Some people argue that the clear effectiveness of limiting
"close contact" through social distancing to reduce SARS-CoV-2
transmission demonstrates that droplets, which fall to the ground close to the
person, are the dominant mode of transmission, and that the same observation
disproves aerosols as an important source of infection. The reality is the
opposite. That "close contact" is a major mode of transmission of
SARS-CoV-2 does not disprove aerosols. Rather, it is some of the
best evidence we have that aerosols
are important and very likely major…
Given such a large fraction of spread through superspreading
events, I have to agree with Prof. Donald Milton that these
events could prove to be the Achilles' heel of SARS-CoV-2, and that we should focus on identifying their causes and
preventing their occurrence. Definitely, the environmental conditions are key:
indoor spaces, low ventilation, crowding, long duration, no masks, loud
conversation or singing. Perhaps also there are unusual individuals who shed a
lot more aerosolized virus than the majority of those infected, and for those
individuals the contagiousness does approach that of measles?...
Nonaerosol
transmission in superspreading events. The authors state that
"it is difficult to determine in retrospect all the potential
person-to-person interactions that may have happened before, during, and
immediately following these events."
Yes, it is difficult. But for the Skagit choir case that we investigated, 53 out
of 60 people were infected during a 2.5-hour rehearsal. The choir spokesperson
told me, "It is not a highly social group. It is pretty seriously about
the singing." Most of the time, choir members were singing in fixed
positions, and there was no one within the 1- to 2-meter "landing
area" of ballistic droplets in front of the index case.
Members were aware of COVID-19, and
reportedly no physical contact between choir members took place. They used hand
sanitizer. The index case did not touch the snacks or help distribute the
chairs. The index case did visit the restroom, but many members who did not use
the restroom were infected.
Could this choir be an outlier? Well,
as we report on our paper, choir cases with high secondary attack rates have
also been reported in at least the Netherlands, Austria, Canada, Germany,
England, South Korea, and Spain. A similar
case in France was just
reported. Yet, events like these are being dismissed by what can only be
referred to as "contortionist thinking." A
scientist interviewed by the New York Times summed it up well: WHO staff members have yet to accept the importance of
these case studies and instead have "dreamed up an alternative story"
in which an infected person spat on his hands, wiped it on something and
"magically" infected numerous other people.
I am high lining this paragraph because this is happening to our leaders when seeing reality.In Psychiatry this is called PSYCHOSIS!There is a “contortionist thinking” when approaching
problems due to ignorance and lack of desire to do their job.Less and less people are trained to be responsible
for what they do.I leave you with “Checo”
Pérez and his knowledge about what a professional should do after a race (He
flew to Mexico to see his mom and got coronavirus)
