A 5 foot barrage is sufficient protection against patients coughing and sneezing. The United States army medical doctors explain the prevalence of pneumonia and influenza in a "way quite different from that assumed by some of the personages at Washington." Rather than the fault of doctors the floors and air spaces in the barracks are insufficiently sanitary.
Source: "Health Talks," Rock Island Argus, Rock Island, Illinois, February 25, 1918. Page 6, Column 4.