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SunSeeker

(51,550 posts)
Sat May 9, 2020, 02:52 AM May 2020

The Covid-19 Spread Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

A long read, but super interesting and informative. Lots of numbers and facts, no opinion or politics, just practical information and advice on how to avoid infection. It was hard to pick just 4 key paragraphs, but here they are:



In order to get infected you need to get exposed to an infectious dose of the virus; the estimate is that you need about ~1000 SARS-CoV2 viral particles for an infection to take hold, but this still needs to be determined experimentally. That could be 1000 viral particles you receive in one breath or from one eye-rub, or 100 viral particles inhaled with each breath over 10 breaths, or 10 viral particles with 100 breaths. Each of these situations can lead to an infection.How much Virus is released into the environment?

A Toilet flush: Without a seat to close, a single flush releases ~8000 droplets into the air. If the person using the restroom before you was infected, you have a chance of contracting the virus via breathing the air in the bathroom. While the paper in question did not look for live virus, it is clear that infected people are releasing, at a minimum, viral RNA, in bowel movements. Until further experiments are done to determine whether is is just viral fragments, or infectious material, I would avoid public bathrooms or wait a few minutes before entering so gravity can bring the droplets to the floor.

A Cough: A single cough releases about 3,000 droplets and droplets travels at 50 miles per hour. Most droplets are large, and fall quickly (gravity), but many do stay in the air and can travel across a room in a few seconds.

Restaurants: Some really great shoe-leather epidemiology demonstrated clearly the effect of a single asymptomatic carrier in a restaurant environment (see below). The infected person (A1) sat at a table and had dinner with 9 friends. Dinner took about 1 to 1.5 hours. During this meal, the asymptomatic carrier released low-levels of virus into the air from their breathing. Airflow (from the restaurant's various airflow vents) was from right to left. Approximately 50% of the people at the infected person's table became sick over the next 7 days. 75% of the people on the adjacent downwind table became infected. And even 2 of the 7 people on the upwind table were infected (believed to happen by turbulent airflow). No one at tables E or F became infected, they were out of the main airflow from the air conditioner on the right to the exhaust fan on the left of the room.
https://erinbromage.wixsite.com/covid19/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

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The Covid-19 Spread Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them (Original Post) SunSeeker May 2020 OP
Good information. brer cat May 2020 #1
This is why I think using sinus sprays helps. Maraya1969 May 2020 #2

Maraya1969

(22,478 posts)
2. This is why I think using sinus sprays helps.
Sat May 9, 2020, 10:34 AM
May 2020

if you have some virus droplets in you and use a saline spray in your nose it seems that the droplets may end up in your stomach where your stomach acids will kill it.

It's just my thought. I haven't heard it anywhere.

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