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This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue, and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions., Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. J. H. reports an unpaid position as secretary/treasurer of BOD of IEQ-GA. F. F. reports an SBIR grant from Franchimon ICM, informal shares and co-founder stock from BlueCanary and iventionair, consulting fees for professional papers and reports from Franchimon ICM, payment for lectures from TVVL (Member Association for HVAC), and payment for webinars from the Dutch Green Building Council. A. B. reports a position at Delft University of Technology and consultancy with a company specialized in indoor environmental quality. J. L. J. reports grants or contracts from NASA, US National Science Fund, and Balvi Filantropic Fund; payment for lectures at Peking University; and unpaid roles on the committee for Testing of Air Cleaning Devices of ASTM and Aireamos volunteer group on ventilation solutions for the Spanish-speaking world. Y. L. reports a collaborative research grant and 3 general research grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), a grant from the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), and grants or contracts from P&G Singapore. Marcel G.L.C. Loomans reports grants or contracts from TVVL, RVO government program TNO for P3Venti project, a grant from TKI NL Health Holland for the CLAIRE project, and a grant from NOW for the MIST project (all paid to the author's institution); M. G. L. C. L. also serves as an ISIAQ.nl board member, and is a member of Impulgroep TVVL (Dutch Association of Building Services Engineers), Kennisgroep VCCN (Dutch Association on Contaminant Control), and WHO, for which they sit on the Environment and Engineering Control Expert Advisory Panel (ECAP) for COVID-19. L. C. M. reports a contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Department of Health and Human Services (HHSN272201400007C); grants or contracts from the Flu Lab and Wellcome Leap (all paid to the author's institution); consulting fees paid to the author from MITRE Corporation, Freedman Consulting, and The New York Times; payment or honoraria paid to the author from the University of Toronto, University of Hong Kong, Queensland University of Technology, and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; support for meetings and/or travel from MITRE Corporation and the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. G. M. reports their role as president of the International Union Against TB & Lung Disease. D. K. M. reports the following grants or contracts—US NIAID U19 AI 162130, for Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission (EMIT-2) using Innovative Technologies and Designs in Controlled Environments; US NIAID contract number 75N93021C00014, for the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response, for Wearable Micro Air Cleaner for Protection of Workers’ Health during Prolonged Use (US NSF Project 75D30121C10610); US NIAID AI148689, A Phase 3, Randomized, Stratified, Observer-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Immunogenicity of mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Adults Aged 18 Years and Older; US NIAID F3038571, Implementing Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) clinical site protocols (CoVPN 3004 Novavax Supplement); US NIAID R21 AI161501, Elucidating Airborne SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity at Single Aerosol Resolution; US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) R01 ES034303, Research Employing Environmental Systems and Occupational Health Policy Analyses to Interrupt the Impact of Structural Racism on Agricultural Workers and Their Respiratory Health (RESPIRAR); Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation INVO022295, COVID-19: Quantifying viral RNA in exhaled breath; US NIAID 025806864609, COVID-19 Surveillance and Exhaled Breath Aerosol Assessment Study; US National Science Foundation (NSF) CMMI2034755, EAGER: Protecting University Communities from COVID-19 with Model-Based Risk Management; US NSF 2030502, COVID: Collaborative Research: RAPID: Understanding and Facilitating Remote Triage and Rehabilitation During Pandemics via Visual Based Patient Physiology Sensing, WMATA Bus Air Cleaning Effectiveness with Novel Air Cleaning Systems, College Band Directors National Association Aerosol Generation from Playing Band Instruments and Risk of Infectious Disease Transmission; US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19: Real-World Tests of Face Coverings as Source Control for COVID-19 and US DARPA, BARDA Contagious Phenotypes of Acute Respiratory Infection: Identification, Characterization, and Biomarkers. D. K. M. also reports payment or honoraria for the American Conference of Governmental Hygienists from the American Dental Association, support for meetings and/or travel from the Flu Lab, and receipt of UVC fixtures from Aeromed, Inc, and FarUV, Inc. C. N. reports the following grants or contracts paid to their institution: Class-ACT (Co-Investigator [CoI]), 2021–22, DHSC-funded project on air cleaning interventions in schools; Far UV projects (CoI), 2021 DHSC funding, 2022 NHS Scotland Assure funding collaboration led by St Andrews with Leeds, Dundee, Ninewells Hospital, Colombia University; PROTECT National Core Study on Transmission (CoI, theme lead), 2020–2023, £21 M program led by HSE; CONTACT (CoI), 2020–2023, NIHR, £1.6 M, Breathing City: Future Urban Ventilation Network (Principal Investigator [PI]), 2020–2023, UKRI SPF Clean Air Programme Network, £500 K; TRACK: Transport Risk Assessment for COVID Knowledge (PI), 2020–2023; EPSRC, £3.4. Multi-partner project with Universities of Manchester, Cambridge, Newcastle, Imperial, UKHSA, Dstl, Department for Transport and multiple transport stakeholders, CECAM, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) £950 K funding to support a new bioaerosol chamber (2021–2025); Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics (Co-Director, PI Prof P. Jimack), 2019–2027, EPSRC, £4.2 M; Cross-faculty programme to train 50 PhD students over 8 years; and EPSRC National Fellowships in Fluid Dynamics coordination hub (CoI), 2022–2025. C. N. also reports honoraria for Royal Institution Christmas Lecture; payment from BBC Life Scientific; accommodation and registration fees for Indoor Air June 2022, Kuopio, Finland, and BOHS annual conference, June 2022, Belfast; travel expenses for the International Symposium on Stratified Fluid, August 2022; travel and registration fees for IHEEM annual conference (October 2022). C. N. served as co-chair for SAGE Environment and Modelling Group (April 2020–May 2022) and participated in multiple UK government advisory groups during COVID, serves as Chair for HSE Science Quality Assurance Group, is a member of the UKRI SPF clean air programme steering board, a member of the WHO Environment and Engineering Control Expert Advisory Panel (ECAP) on ventilation and WHO European High Level Expert Group on COVID-19 leading the ventilation subgroup, and as a Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering COVID-19 Working Group on Infection Resilient Buildings and co-author of reports in July 2021 and May/June 2022. C. N. also received 3 Aranet CO2 sensors from Naltic Industrials. S. M. reports a leadership role as the Vice President for the Academy of Fellows, International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate, and on the Aerosol Science and Technology Journal advisory board (both of which are unpaid positions). W. B. reports an unpaid role as chair of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force. P. M. B. serves in a leadership or fiduciary role on the KNAW Commission and the Pandemic Disaster Preparedness Centre (both unpaid positions). All other authors report no potential conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.)