3 ms·
This PR purports to answer a question I had since the beginning of the epidemic when it was clear that transmission was through-air. """“For example, if we ass
by dekhn 3y ago
This PR purports to answer a question I had since the beginning of the epidemic when it was clear that transmission was through-air.
"""“For example, if we assume the infectious dose for COVID is 300 copies, then a person who is exhaling 1,000 viral copies per minute would exhale an infectious dose in 20 seconds (highly risky in an elevator), whereas a person who is exhaling two viral copies per minute would exhale an infectious dose in about two hours (probably safe in an elevator),” Lane said. """
- CoastalCoder 3y agoCan someone clarify the concept of "infectious dose"? My layman's understanding is that even one virion can potentially infect someone. It's just that the odds of infection generally increase with the number of virions. (Modulo many other factors like where the virions reside, immune response, etc.) But the concept of "an infectious dose" sounds much more binary to me. EDIT:s/viron/virion/g
- dekhn 3y agoI'm not speaking as an authortiative individual here, but likely it's defined probabilistically in that 50% of people given a dosage show signs of infection later. See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_infective_dose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_infective_dose
- at_a_remove 3y agoIt would be nice to find some charts of what that would be for various virii.
- rolph 3y agonot all virions are equal. the viral assembly process, and the RNA replication process is error prone. many copies, of the covid virion, are incapable of cell entry or reproductive infection, due to defects in manufacture.
- PaulKeeble 3y agoI have seen some small scale research suggesting the likely number for necessary copies to become infected is 34. That makes one breath likely enough.