The African saxophone legend Manu Dibango has died in Paris after catching coronavirus. (AFP)
By Jon Solomon, Westword | Last March, a person with mild COVID-19 symptoms went to a two-and-a-half-hour chorale practice in Skagit Valley, Washington. In the weeks that followed, more than fifty people — nearly everyone who attended the rehearsal — contracted the disease, and two people died.
Shelly Miller, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, led a recent study of that rehearsal, one of the nation’s first super-spreader events. The study states that singing indoors and unmasked can swiftly spread COVID-19 via microscopic airborne particles known as aerosols.
In the study, Miller explains that although members of the chorale took precautions, such as using hand sanitizer, avoiding touching each other or surfaces and propping doors open, they didn’t wear masks. Members of the chorale were interviewed as part of the study, and researchers concluded that there simply were not enough opportunities for droplets and infected surfaces, known as fomites, to transmit the virus to the number of people who fell ill afterward.
Instead, poor ventilation in the indoor space led to a build-up of aerosols produced by the singers, and heat produced by the singers themselves mixed the air within the room.
Miller, who was also part of a study with scientists and musicians involving aerosols from woodwind instruments, says super-spreader events happen indoors when there’s not enough ventilation and too many people are releasing aerosols.
As for wind instruments, Miller says they do release aerosols, particularly through the bell of the instrument. That has the potential to carry the virus.
Read all of Jon’s article here:
https://www.westword.com/music/university-of-colorado-boulder-researchers-study-covid-19-and-musical-instruments-11811113
Jon Solomon writes about music and nightlife for Westword, where he’s been the Clubs Editor since 2006.