[exDemMom]

I suspect that it goes airborn shortly before death, which explains why healthcare workers are the ones mostly getting and spreading it.

A person is at his/her most contagious just before death--the body is probably covered with virus--and healthcare workers spending too much time wearing hot PPE and working long hours get tired and make mistakes. That's why they get sick.

The virus does not infect mucous-secreting respiratory tissues, and it is very large in comparison to respiratory viruses so can only fit inside the large droplet-sized particles. Droplet transmission is direct transmission, not airborne.

[independentmind]

From what I have read, the healthcare workers are most at risk performing intubations and assisting with dialysis. Presumably these procedures would only be performed on a patient who is most likely in the end-stage of the disease.

The most risk appears to be attached to the extreme measures needed to save someone experiencing organ failure.