- Most coronavirus infections occur when someone is less than six feet from someone who has COVID-19.
- Meetings indoors, even when people are socially estranged, continue to be risky because drops stay longer in the air when there is poor ventilation.
- Efforts must be made to vaccinate in the United States to combat the spread of a more contagious and resistant COVID strain in South Africa.
Much of what we know, or believe we knew, about coronavirus has changed in recent months. Of course, this is to be expected considering that health experts and researchers were initially baffled by the way the coronavirus manifested in patients and how it managed to spread so quickly.
Now that we’ve been in the pandemic for almost a year, health experts have a much firmer view of how the coronavirus spreads and, in turn, what can be done to reduce the likelihood of transmission. Suffice it to say that by constantly washing countertops and disinfecting the home, while important, it is not about how most people come into contact with COVID-19.
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According to the CDC, COVID-19 spreads more easily when a positive person on COVID-19 is very close to another person. And seeing as transmission usually occurs through respiratory drops, common activities such as laughing, talking, or even breathing heavily can increase the likelihood of transmission. In fact, intense breathing is precisely why an activity like going to the gym can be especially risky.
The following CDC details how COVID-19 is normally distributed between two people:
- People who are physically close (less than 6 feet) to a person with COVID-19 or who have direct contact with that person have an increased risk of infection.
- When people with COVID-19 cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe they produce respiratory drops. These droplets can range from larger drops (some of which are visible) to smaller drops. Small drops can also form particles when they dry very quickly in the air flow.
- Infections occur primarily by exposure to respiratory drops when a person is in close contact with someone who has COVID-19.
- Respiratory droplets cause infection when inhaled or deposited on mucous membranes, such as those lining the inside of the nose and mouth.
- As the respiratory droplets move away from the person with COVID-19, the concentration of these droplets decreases. Larger drops fall from the air due to gravity. Drops and smaller particles spread through the air.
Incidentally, one of the reasons COVID-19 infection is more likely to occur in the winter is that the drops tend to get lost in the air longer in colder, drier air environments.
The CDC adds that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is a risk of transmission even when people meet social distancing guidelines. Although less common than direct person-to-person transmission, the CDC writes that such transmissions typically occur indoors with lower ventilation.
Under these circumstances, scientists believe that the amount of gout and smaller infectious particles produced by people with COVID-19 was concentrated enough to spread the virus to other people. Infected people were in the same space at the same time or shortly after the person left with COVID-19.
In fact, this is why meetings indoors are especially risky, even if people stay socially distant. To date, the U.S. has seen 26.4 million coronavirus infections and 446,643 COVID-related deaths.
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A lifelong Mac user and Apple enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry in general for over 6 years. His writings have appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK and, more recently, in TUAW. When not writing or analyzing recent events with Apple, Yoni enjoys taking Improv programs in Chicago, playing football, and cultivating new addictions to television shows, the most recent examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.