Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1

nejm.org

8 pointsxenonite2 comments

The infection vector via aerosols is really concerning. The virus is detectable for hours, and its median half life as aerosols is 1.1-1.2 HOURS!

Please note: aerosols do not sink to the floor, they just hover like dust in the air. Previously, aerosols were excluded as an infection vector. According to the article, transmission via aerosols is "plausible".

This means you should not share the same air for HOURS.

Put that way, it does sounds very scary. But am I reading correctly that it's no more potent than the old version of SARS in this respect?

"The half-lives of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 were similar in aerosols, with median estimates of approximately 1.1 to 1.2 hours and 95% credible intervals of 0.64 to 2.64 for SARS-CoV-2 and 0.78 to 2.43 for SARS-CoV-1 (Figure 1C, and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix)."

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