Six feet isn't enough. Workers need more ventilation.

To understand how far aerosols travel, consider cigarette smoke, which moves through the air in a similar fashion. If you are next to a smoker, you may inhale a big dose of their smoke. But even 10 or 20 feet away, you can still smell the smoke. If there are many smokers, even more smoke will fill the air. Small particles containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus behave similarly, giving the biggest dose and most infections to people within a few feet, but also potentially infecting some people at a greater distance from the source. If there are more infected people in one room or an infected person is talking loudly or singing, the danger increases because more virus is likely to be in the air.

Surgical masks and cloth face coverings stop droplet spray but don’t perform as well in preventing exhalation or inhalation of tiny aerosols. They may be fine for a quick trip to the store where shoppers keep six feet apart, but workers who spend many hours in crowded indoor settings, especially settings with inadequate ventilation and jobs that involve being close to other people, need much more protection. And it’s exactly those working conditions that are driving the high rates of Covid-19 among workers in nursing homes, correctional facilities, transportation, food processing, grocery stores and similar jobs involving long hours in poorly ventilated spaces. These jobs are ones in which people of color are over-represented, contributing to elevated risk of Covid-19 disease and death among Blacks, Latinos and other racial and ethnic minorities.