People who breathe heavily can be Covid-19 SUPERSPREATORS – obese and elderly people are the worst criminals
- American researchers evaluated aerosol particles exhaled from almost 200 people
- He also infected primates with Covid to see how the infection altered production
- BMI, age and Covid infection were all related to increased aerosol production
- 80% of aerosols were produced by 18% of people – meeting the definition of a super spreader event
Superspreaders have long been known to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus infections, and now a study has found that people who breathe heavily are probably to blame.
The data shows that more than 80 percent of all exhaled aerosol particles are produced by less than one in five people, meeting the technical definition of oversizing.
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 stay for several minutes.
Older people with a high BMI and infected cases are more likely to breathe heavily and expel large amounts of infectious particles, the research shows.
Older people and those with a high BMI are more likely to breathe heavily and expel large amounts of infectious particles, according to the research.
The first part of the study measured the number of particles expressed per individual per liter and compared it to a combination of their age and BMI.
He showed a strong link between age and BMI with the increase in the production of exhaled aerosols, indicating that fatter and older people are the worst aggressors because they are over-sized for heavy breathing.
The study reveals a distribution of ’20:80 classic overspread’, the study authors note.
The so-called 80:20 rule means that for something to be scientifically considered to be a super-disseminating event, at least 80% of infections must be caused by no more than 20% of people.
“The phenomenon of COVID-19 over-spreading may not only be a matter of drafts and proximity to infected and naive hosts, but also of phenotype,” wrote the scientists in their article published in PNAS.
The exhaled air of 194 health people was studied by scientists at Harvard, MIT and the University of Tulane.
They also deliberately gave eight monkeys Covid to see if infection with the coronavirus affected the amount of aerosols produced.
Writing in their study, the authors claim that Covid-19 particles produced by infected primates “rise to a crescendo” one week after infection, before returning to normal after two weeks, similarly to what is seen in humans.
The data show that more than 80 percent of all exhaled 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 stay for several minutes (stock)
The increase in exhaled aerosols occurred even among asymptomatic cases of Covid-19, says Dr. Chad Roy, corresponding author of the Tulane study.
“It seems likely that viral and bacterial infections of the airways can weaken mucus in the airways, which promotes the movement of infectious particles into this environment,” he said.
The lead author, Dr. David Edwards, from Harvard, believes that how many respiratory droplets a person produces changes depending on their body and health.
‘Although our results show that young and healthy people tend to generate much less droplets than older and less healthy ones, they also show that any of us, when infected with COVID-19, may be at risk of producing a large number of respiratory droplets, ‘he said.
Previous research has revealed that runners can also be super-spreaders of the virus.
A video, set up by Professor Bert Blocken and Fabio Malizia (KU Leuven & Technology University Eiondhoven (TU / e) and developed by simulation technology company Ansys, showed that drops can spread more than six meters behind you while you are walking, running or cycling.
“If we see a whale or dolphin flying through the vent, we can see the water and jump out of the way if necessary,” Marc Horner, Ansys’ chief health engineer, told DailyMail.com
‘But if someone sneezes or coughs, it happens very fast and the drops are so small, [the simulation gets] that mental image in your mind of how far you need to stay so that gravity has time to pull the drops down. ‘