London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline

Re:London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline by riffraff on Sunday May 24, 2020 @12:51AM (#23289197)

The virus survives in water droplets or aerosol which fall down faster than smoke.

You can easily smell cigar smoke at 10 meters but you are ver unlikely to get infected at the same distance, current estimates put it to 4 meters in hospital settings.

Also,the amount of virus you receive matters, and distance decreases it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline by PeterStuer on Sunday May 24, 2020 @02:43AM (#23289665)

You are right about viral load being a factor. You are not right about only macro droplets being a problem. Micro dropplets, that are suspended in air and do not "fall to the ground" soon carry enough of the virus to be infectious in accumulation. This is why indoor areas are problematic regardless of the 6 foot spacing, as the air just gets saturated over time unless you have a continual strong crossdraft.

The smoke analogy is not perfect, as it's composition is less moist, but it is closer to the truth than the '6 foot' model that was itself already a compromise between the now accepted as disproved macro fluid projectile model and economic concerns.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline by gshdg on Sunday May 24, 2020 @10:11AM (#23291633)

And that strong cross draft can be blowing it directly into someone else’s airspace anyway.

[ Parent | on HN ]