- The spread of the coronavirus spray is a real risk, the World Health Organization said a few weeks ago after more than 200 researchers urged the WHO to recognize the problem. But the organization maintains that droplet transmission is the primary way COVID-19 spreads.
- A new study looked at how COVID-19 moved within the closed environment of the Diamond Princess cruiser that was quarantined in Japan in early February, and found that aerosol transmission may be a worse phenomenon than we thought.
- The research follows other studies that proved that the aerosol virus can infect cells, and showed that taller people are twice as likely to be infected.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship gained worldwide notoriety in early February when Japanese authorities quarantined the ship in the port of Yokohama seeking to contain the COVID-19 infection aboard the ship. Finally, 712 of the 3,711 passengers and crew on board tested positive and 14 died when the Diamond Princess docked. The ship has been the subject of some study, considering that it offered researchers a unique insight into the behavior of the virus within a population that was confined to the ship for several weeks.
The latest research could show that one of the worst things about the new coronavirus should be a real concern for authorities seeking to contain COVID-19 outbreaks. That’s the aerosol broadcast, a theme that keeps popping up on COVID-19 more and more often. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the risk of spreading COVID-19 by air a few weeks ago, but still maintained that the largest saliva droplets that are expelled by speaking, sneezing, and coughing are the primary form in that the virus spreads. Diamond Princess’ new study says it can quantify aerosol transmission inside the cruise.
Researchers have recently shown that the virus that can float in aerosols can replicate once it reaches cells. This was an indication that the virus can survive in the air in those droplets that turn into aerosols after the water evaporates, and float longer than the largest saliva droplets that can land on surfaces and people. A different study proposed another unexpected conclusion. People who are 6 feet tall are twice as likely to be infected with the new coronavirus, and airborne spread is the only type of transmission that can support the finding.
Researchers from Harvard and the Illinois Institute of Technology teamed up for a study that attempted to model COVID-19 transmission models aboard the ship, and concluded that aerosol transmission played a major role in the Diamond Princess coronavirus epidemic. The study has not been peer reviewed, but has been published online at medRxivvia The New York Times.
The researchers conducted more than 20,000 simulations that took into account various peculiarities of the Diamond Princess COVID-19 outbreak, including patterns of social interactions, the amount of time the virus can live on surfaces, the size of particles ejected from the mouth of a person and their behavior in the air.
More than 130 simulations yielded results similar to what happened in real life on board the ship. The researchers analyzed the more “realistic” scenarios to estimate the importance of various forms of viral transmission. They concluded that the smallest droplets were primarily responsible for the spread of the virus on the cruise, accounting for 60% of new infections both at short and long distances. Transmission of fomites, or causing the virus to touch the same surfaces, played a minor role.
“Many people have argued that airborne transmission is occurring, but no one had numbers for that,” said Dr. Parham Azimi of Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health. “What is the contribution of these little drops? Is it 5 percent or 90 percent? In this document, we provide the first real estimates of what that number might be, at least for this cruise. “
So far, researchers have shown that aerosol transmission is real for infectious diseases, including COVID-19, that viral aerosol loads are contagious, and that aerosol spread may have been the main driver of the Diamond Princess outbreak. More research is required, and studies should receive adequate reviews from other experts.
Separate investigations showed that face masks could reduce droplets and aerosol transmission, whether they be surgical masks or multi-layered homemade fabric covers. It is not clear how much virus would be enough to infect a person. But sprays could help the pathogen get to the lower airways faster than drops. It is in the lungs where the virus can multiply at devastating speed and cause various life-threatening complications.
The researchers believe the Diamond Princess broadcast study could help officials design new measures that could be applied to indoor conditions, such as school. The simplest is “really enforce mask policies,” according to the professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Brent Stephens. Proper masks should also be used to reduce spread through aerosols.
Changes in ventilation may also be necessary to improve the safety of interior spaces. Princess Diamond did not recirculate the air and was well ventilated, but that did not stop the spread of the virus.
Not all scientists agree that aerosol transmission may be the main driver of COVID-19 spread, and The times’ Reading the coverage is worth reading for more insights. But even if the spread of aerosols is only a minimal risk, health officials should consider measures to reduce this route of transmission.
Chris Smith began writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it, he was sharing his views on technology topics with readers around the world. Every time you don’t write about devices, you unfortunately don’t stay away from them, even though you desperately try. But that is not necessarily a bad thing.
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