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As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, researchers have hotly debated the primary method of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus—via relatively large respiratory droplets, which fall quickly to the floor under their own weight, or smaller aerosolized droplets capable of circulating in the air for long periods of time. A study posted to the preprint server bioRxiv last week (October 19) adds yet more evidence that infectious virus can be spread via aerosolized droplets.
“If I were someone who thought that large droplets were the way [that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted] and if I were skeptical about aerosols, this study might make me rethink my assumptions,” says Virginia Tech engineer Linsey Marr, who studies how viruses spread through aerosols and was not involved in the study.
It’s another brick in the edifice of evidence for long-range aerosol transmission.
Although observational data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 spreads between people at short ...
