Comment by lmilcin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lmilcin | Hacker News Reader

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I suggest you educate yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_disease

"Airborne transmission is distinct from transmission by respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets are large enough to fall to the ground rapidly after being produced (usually greater than 5 μm), as opposed to the smaller particles that carry airborne pathogens. Also, while respiratory droplets consist mostly of water, AIRBORNE PARTICLES ARE RELATIVELY DRY, which damages many pathogens so that their ability to transmit infection is lessened or eliminated."

Here, I capitalized it for you so you don't miss it.

Airborne virus is what happens after fine respiratory mist dries out, which happens quite quickly. It is "relatively" dry because some of the respiratory fluid is hygroscopic. Don't make a mistake, there is no free flowing liquid with virus happily swimming in it.

These threads are awful because "droplet" and "aerosol" don't have good fixed definitions, and because people misuse the word "airborne" to mean "aerosol".

Yes, there is a lot of education problem when you want to discuss anything virus related.

Aerosol == small droplets of water.

Airborne, particles == no droplet, just leftover of an aerosol that dried out in less than 100% humid air.

It would not be the first time that health-related article on an economic website gets physics wrong.

Thank you, you're repeating things I've already stated in my first post. I suggest reading things more carefully.

In your refusal to read the article, you're missing how sars-cov-2 is teaching us new science about how viruses may survive in aerosols, which behave differently from particles that travel in a ballistic motion.

Airborne viruses have been known for a long, long time. The physics is established. The whole reason we distinguish between airborne and non-airborne viruses is exactly because virus needs special arrangements to be able to survive outside of fluid.

While it is interesting how particles move in a room, it is completely different topic. The particles ARE NOT AEROSOL. The kind of aerosol that can flow in tiny air currents dries out in seconds and becomes small particles (not droplets) of "relatively dry" matter that is fine enough to stay in air for a very long time.

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