Researchers say airborne transmission is possible, especially in cramped indoor settings, but it’s unclear how much it contributes to the spread. Here’s how to lower your risks, just in case. Reported by Pien Huang/NPR. Animation by Shanti Hands for NPR. Video produced by Max Posner and Ben de la Cruz/NPR.
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We all know that when people with
coronavirus sneeze or cough on you you’re at risk of
getting it. But even when we speak or sing or shout
particles come out of our noses and mouths. Big bits of spittle can come
flying out when you’re shouting and smaller droplets and air sliced bits
can also come out in clouds that may linger in
the air. In some settings, especially crowded indoor rooms where
many people are gathering, there’s the possibility that clouds of the virus
expelled when someone speaks might be able to stay aloft in the air
and potentially infect people further than the recommended six feet of social
distance. What’s the evidence you ask? Well there
was that time in late January when ten people were infected in a windowless
restaurant in Guangzhou, China. More than 80 people had shared the
dining room that day, but the ten that got sick
were all sitting in the path of one air conditioning event
that may have sucked in viral particles from someone in the room later confirmed
to have it. Another classic example scientists bring
up is a choir practice back in March in Washington state.
Fifty-three out of 61 people who attended came down with COVID-19.
The act of singing where you’re breathing deeply and projecting your
voice spews tiny virus particles from deep
inside the lungs that can then stay aloft in the air.
Researchers look at these examples and say well it’s possible
especially in crowded indoor rooms with not so great ventilation
that the virus can build up in the air and travel on air currents spreading to
others. What’s still unclear is how long the
virus lingers in the air, how far it travels through a room,
how much you need to breathe in to get infected, and how commonly it spreads
this way. But scientists at the World Health
Organization say airborne transmission cannot be ruled out.
So what can you do to protect yourself? Well it seems like airflow has something
to do with it. So researchers recommend making the indoors more like the outside.
What they mean by that is to open the windows and put some fans in them to pull outside air in. That fresh air will scatter the clouds
of virus that might exist and that way you’re less likely to
breathe in a big infectious dose of the virus.
They also recommend cleaning indoor air perhaps by using an air purifier.
You might consider doing what Seema Lakdawala, a flu researcher at the
University of Pittsburgh, does. When she encounters someone she tries
not to talk to them straight-on, face-to-face, in person. “Right so what i
do is: when i’m walking and I can’t have six
feet of distance between me and someone else, I tend to turn my head
so that I am not directly face -to-face with somebody that I’m
breathing in their entire plume of air. Some of this might be common knowledge
by now, but make sure that you wear your mask
right and also keep a personal space bubble of six feet between you and other
people. The mask will catch a lot of the
droplets that come out when you speak or laugh or cough
and also block some of other people’s droplets from getting into your nose and
mouth. And that six feet of space between you
and others means there’s more air passing between you
to dilute any clouds of virus that might be expelled.
The last tip is to limit the amount of time you spend indoors with other people.
The more time you spend, especially indoors, talking to someone who’s
infectious or breathing in a lingering virus cloud,
the more likely you are to get infected. So yeah,
experts don’t recommend that you spend a lot of time at the grocery store picking
out the perfect peach or that you drink the night away at a bar.
By keeping yourself moving and the air around you moving, you’ll minimize your
chances of downing a big infectious whiff of the virus.
For NPR I’m Pien Huang. I’m a global health and development reporter for the
science desk.
