“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts”

I was reminded of this controversial quote from Richard Feynman in 1966 when reviewing a paper from 2009 on the airborne transmission of disease in hospitals:

“The physiology of a cough suggests that it is more likely to bring up and expel

deep-seated organisms from the lower respiratory tract in the chest

than the sneeze or normal speech, both of which are more likely to

expel organisms inhabiting the upper respiratory tract. Generally,

the latter organisms (e.g. rhinoviruses and coronaviruses)

are of less severe clinical consequence” (Eames, I. Et al. 2009, pg S699)

Some may read the quote above and think ‘well, they got that wrong’ - as i did myself upon first reading. However, at the time of writing the paper science had known about coronavirus for 45 years, and most of of this time the effects of coronavirus had indeed been of less severe clinical consequence.

But what relevance does this have to my research? Over 900 of the hospital buildings that are in use today were built in before 1965, and a further 2,800 post discovery of coronavirus. However, all of the hospitals not built within the last 24 months were unaware of the impacts of Covid-19, how it spreads and the devastating impact it would have on both patients and staff.

No one could have realistically forseen the impact of Covid-19, but moving forward we need to have the knowledge of ignorance in our tool belts to better design new and refurbish old estate to allow for adaptation to whatever the future throws at the NHS.