The effectiveness of the two metres distance rule to ensure one is not infected by coronavirus is being placed in contention following the view of scientists at the National Academy of Science in the United States that coronavirus may spread through the air and maybe contracted through breathing and even talking.
Responding to a question by Kelvin Droegermeier, Head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, about the possibility that coronavirus could also be spread by talking in addition to sneezes and coughs, Harvey Fineberg, head of a committee at the National Academy of Science said although study size is small, current research shows that the virus could spread through airborne particles originating from a patient’s breathing out.
Citing research by Santarpia et al of the University of Nebraska Medical Centre which collected surface and air samples from 11 isolation rooms used to care for persons infected with coronavirus and the hallways to the patients’ rooms, Fineberg said both the surface and air samples acquired by air collectors placed more than 2 metres from patients showed the presence of the virus.
“Personal collectors worn by samplers also were positive even though the patients were not coughing while samplers were present,” Fineberg stated in a letter to Droegermeier.
The new research contends with the view currently held by numerous disease control agencies that the virus is transmitted through large respiratory droplets expelled when people cough and sneeze which then drop to the ground or surfaces within 1 or 2 meters, hence the advice to stay two meters away from anyone who coughs or sneezes and to use face masks. But the new finding that talking and even breathing put people at risk raises new concerns for many people over a disease which has killed thousands of people worldwide.
Another study published by The New England Journal of Medicine which triggered the debate as regards the mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) found that the virus could float in droplets below 5 microns in diameter for up to three hours in a highly infective state.
Experts say a lot is still being learned about a pandemic that has now infected over one million people globally even as countries and big pharmaceutical companies are racing to discover a vaccine.
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