She knew from day 1 hour 1 that this was airborne and pushed for the narrative to be altered.


Q: Was that your biggest mistake as chief scientist—not calling SARS-CoV-2 airborne?

A: We should have done it much earlier, based on the available evidence, and it is something that has cost the organization. You can argue that [the criticism of WHO] is unfair, because when it comes to mitigation, we did talk about all the methods, including ventilation and masking. But at the same time, we were not forcefully saying: “This is an airborne virus.” I regret that we didn't do this much, much earlier.