Heavy respirators could be Covid-19 SUPERPREADERS – with obese and elderly people the worst offenders
- U.S. researchers have evaluated expired aerosol particles from nearly 200 people
- Also, primates infected with Covid to see how the infection changed production
- BMI, age and Covid infection were all linked to increased aerosol production
- 80% of aerosols were made by 18% of people – meeting the definition of an over-spreading event
It has long been known that superspandies are responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus infections and now a study has found that heavy breathing is probably to blame.
The data show that more than 80 percent of all expired aerosol particles are produced by less than one in five people, meeting the technical definition for superspanders.
These tiny particles can carry viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and are so small that they float in a room and can persist for several minutes.
Researchers show that the elderly, those with a high BMI and infected cases are more likely to have heavy breathing that sheds huge amounts of infectious particles.
Research shows that the elderly and those with a high BMI are more likely to have heavy breathing that releases huge amounts of infectious particles.
The first part of the study measured the number of particles expressed per individual per liter and compared it with a combination of age and BMI.
It showed a strong link between age and BMI, with increased production of expired aerosols, indicating that fatter and older people are the worst offenders because they are heavy-breath superspanders.
The study reveals a “classic 20:80 over-spread” distribution, the study’s authors note.
The so-called 80:20 rule means that for something to be scientifically considered a spreading event, at least 80% of infections must be caused by no more than 20% of people.
“The phenomenon of COVID-19 overgrowth can be not only a matter of air currents and the proximity of infected and naive hosts, but also of the phenotype,” the scientists write in their paper published in PNAS.
The expired breathing of 194 health workers was studied by scientists at Harvard, MIT and Tulane University.
They also deliberately gave Covid eight monkeys to see if the coronavirus infection affected the amount of aerosols produced.
Writing in their study, the authors say that Covid-19 particles produced by infected primates “grow to crescendo” one week after infection before falling back to normal after two weeks, in a similar way to that seen in humans.
The data show that more than 80% of all expired aerosol particles are produced by less than one in five people. These tiny particles can carry viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and are so small that they float in a room and can persist for a few minutes (stock)
The increase in expired aerosols occurred even in asymptomatic cases of Covid-19, says Dr. Chad Roy, the corresponding author of the Tulane study.
“It appears that viral and bacterial infections of the airways can weaken the mucus of the airways, which promotes the movement of infectious particles in this environment,” he said.
The lead author, Dr. David Edwards, of Harvard, believes how many breath drops a person produces depending on their body and health.
“While our results show that young and healthy people tend to generate far fewer drops than older and less healthy people, they also show that any of us, when infected with COVID-19, can it risks producing a large number of respiratory drops, ‘he said.
Previous research has shown that joggers can also be superspanders of the virus.
A video, set up by Professor Bert Blocken and Fabio Malizia (KU Leuven & Technology University Eiondhoven (TU / e)) and powered by simulation technology company Ansys, showed that the droplets can spread more than six feet behind you. while walking, running or cycling.
“If we see a whale or a dolphin blowing through their mouths of air, we can see water and jump out of the way, if necessary,” Marc Horner, chief medical engineer at Ansys, told DailyMail.com.
“But if someone sneezes or coughs, it happens so fast and the drops are so small, [the simulation gets] that mental image in your mind of how far you have to sit, so that gravity has time to pull the drops down.