“Risk of aerosol contamination in a stuffy room” | Inland

There is much debate about the role of aerosols in the spread of the corona virus. The RIVM states that “it is not clear” whether small drops that linger in the air for a long time play a role. Even if so, large drops that fall quickly play a more important role, according to the institute. Partly for this reason, the advice is to keep 1.5 meters away.

That large droplets are a bigger factor than aerosols, the team that conducted the new research also thinks. In their study, the physicists of the UvA and medical researchers of the Amsterdam UMC and Cardiology Centers Netherlands examined, among other things, how long aerosols float in the air when people, for example, talk or cough. They combined their measurements with other insights about the coronavirus, such as the degree of infectivity and the number of virus particles that people emit. The results have been published in the journal Physics of Fluids.

Virusdeeltjes

According to the researchers, it appears that infected people who have only mild symptoms, or are even symptom-free, do not emit that many virus particles through aerosols. Contamination via this route is therefore not that efficient for the virus, they think. However, some people have been found to produce nearly 20 times more aerosols than average. If they are infected with the coronavirus, they also emit many more tiny droplets that contain the virus and the risk increases.

It is not known exactly how many virus particles someone has to inhale to become infected. According to the scientists it is clear that Sars-CoV-2 is a lot less contagious via the air than ‘real’ air viruses, such as measles. The Amsterdam researchers advise people to keep their distance from each other and to wear face masks.

Studies transfer

Although the RIVM is not convinced of the importance of aerosols, researchers who work for the institute wrote in a study in July that there is increasing evidence that the corona virus also spreads in this way. Transmission of the coronavirus “is possible and should not be ignored,” they warned.

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