SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind today’s global coronavirus pandemic, spreads primarily by inhalation of virus-laden aerosols at both short and long ranges —and a comprehensive new assessment of respiratory viruses finds that many others probably do as well.
SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, influenza, measles, and the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold can all spread via aerosols that can build up in indoor air and linger for hours, an international interdisciplinary team of researchers reports in a review published in Science Aug. 27.
Over the last century and at the beginning of this pandemic, it was widely believed that respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, mainly spread through droplets produced in coughs and sneezes of infected individuals or through touching contaminated surfaces. However, droplet and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 fails to account for the numerous superspreading events observed during the COVID-19 pandemic or the much higher transmission that occurs indoors vs. outdoors.
Motivated by a desire to understand the factors leading to the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers from Taiwan, the United States, and Israel sought to identify as clearly as possible how the coronavirus and other respiratory viruses spread.
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Science. Research Paper.
