In just a year doctors have fetishised “Aerosol Generating Procedures” as the bogeyman. Docs now routinely avoid various aspects of non-invasive ventilation/cpap/bipap, preoxygenation/high-flow nasal oxygen, parts of intubation, CPR, nebulisers for asthma and COPD treatment and suctioning out of fear of spreading Covid. The evidence to support this is weak, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming universal dogma.
We act at though AGPs are well-proven Covid vectors, and that prohibiting AGPs saves provider’s lives… when the evidence suggests otherwise.
What evidence we do have suggests the greatest risks, by far, are our patients: coughing, singing, and talking loudly.
Simply coughing creates 500 times more aerosols than intubating a patient.
Dr Gary Payinda 