We know that some people are more likely than others to give COVID-19 to those they come in contact with, and new research identifies three factors that specifically raise the risk of someone is a superstition.
The study included 194 healthy people as well as 8 monkeys from two different species called the coronavirus, and identified how a higher age, higher body index (BMI) may , and a higher rate of COVID-19 infection all significantly increase the chance of the virus being passed from one person to another.
According to the researchers’ study, COVID-19 appears to follow the pattern of epidemics of other infectious diseases, where 18 percent of those infected are responsible for 80 percent of the spread.
The key to superspreading lies in the mucus in the airways, the study reports. The likelihood or impermeability of this membrane to rupture as air passes through is likely to go a long way in affecting the susceptibility of droplets filled with air. coronavirus transmitted through the air.
“Our findings show that the ability of airway-lined mucus to resist respiratory failure varies greatly between individuals, with a trend increasing with the progression of COVID-19 disease and body index multiplied by age, “the researchers wrote in their published paper.
Across the humans and primates in the study, the older subjects with higher BMI and heavier dose of COVID-19 infection reported as much as three times the number of exhaled respiratory drops.
And a particular problem is the tiny droplets: they travel farther, stay away longer, and go deeper into the lungs when ingested. The research found that, at the height of COVID-19 infection, usually a week after the first infection, exhaled grains were at a minimum – as little as one micron, a million meters.
“We have seen a similar increase in droplets at the stage of infectious disease with other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,” says microbiologist Chad Roy, of Tulane University.
“It appears that viral and bacterial infections of the airway can weaken airway mucus, which stimulates the movement of infectious particles into this environment.”
However, we all push out breath drops while breathing, talking, coughing and sneezing, and the researchers want to emphasize that responsibility remains on the young, appropriate and disease – free to ensure that they do not suffer from others.
“While our findings show that the younger and healthier ones tend to produce far fewer drops than the older and less healthy ones, they also show that one can any of us, when we have COVID-19, are at risk of producing large amounts of respiratory droplets, ”says bioengineer David Edwards, of Harvard University.
Even as vaccine programs roll out worldwide, the study suggests that evaluating and controlling COVID-19 airborne emissions remains critical in reversing full of diseases, hospitals and deaths – by identifying superstitions that are important for that.
The research was published in PNAS.