Does COVID-19 transmit via expiratory particles?

UC Davis Air Quality Research Director, Dr. Tony Wexler, looked into what role aerosols play in the transmission of coronavirus particles with colleagues William Ristenpart (UC Davis), Nicole Bouvier (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), and Sima Asadi (UC Davis).

Reviewing the brief knowns on aerosol transmission of particles and earlier research on other coronavirus', they argue

that speech plausibly serves as an important and under-recognized transmission mechanism for COVID-19.

As leaders in the field of aerosol research they now call upon the rest of the aerosol research community to corroborate or reject the hypothesis with hard data and supportive technology. 

In terms of technology, improved bioaerosol sampling technology (Pan et al. 2016) is necessary; in terms of science, closer collaboration between virologists, epidemiologists, and aerosol scientists (Mubareka et al. 2019) is necessary; and in terms of outreach, improved efforts to inform the public that every individual emits potentially infectious aerosols all the time, not just when sneezing or coughing, is necessary.

and the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center pleads with you to remember...

The stakes for the world are enormous. The aerosol science community needs to step up and tackle the current challenge presented by COVID-19, and also help better prepare us for inevitable future pandemics.

Review the full editorial article in Aerosol Science and Technology online here.

Citation: Sima Asadi, Nicole Bouvier, Anthony S. Wexler & William D. Ristenpart (2020): The coronavirus pandemic and aerosols: Does COVID-19 transmit via expiratory particles?, Aerosol Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02786826.2020.1749229