LONDON (Reuters) – The entire COVID-causing virus circulating in the world right now could easily fit into a single can of glue, according to a calculation by a British mathematician whose sum exposes the amount of devastation caused by the tiny viral particles.
Using global rates of new pandemic disease infections, along with estimates of viral load, Bath University mathematics expert Kit Yates worked out that there are about two quintillions (or two billion). million) of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world at any given time.
Detailing the steps in his calculations, Yates said he used the diameter of SARS-CoV-2 (at an average of about 100 nanometers, or 100 billion parts per meter) and then discovered the volume of the spherical virus.
Even taking into account the ear proteins that project the coronavirus and the fact that spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked together, the total is still less than that of a single tin of 330 milliliters (ml) of glue, he said.
“It’s amazing to think that all the problems, disruption, hardship and loss of life that have resulted over the last year could constitute just a few bites,” Yates said in a statement.
More than 2.34 million people have died in the COVID-19 pandemic to date and there have been nearly 107 million confirmed cases worldwide.
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Report by Kate Kelland, edited by Alexandra Hudson