Heavy Respirators Could Be Covid-19 SUPERSPREADERS

Super-spreaders have long been known to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus infections and now a study has found that heavy respirators are likely the culprits.

Data shows that over 80% of all exhaled aerosol particles are produced by less than one in five people, which meets the technical definition of super-spreaders.

These tiny particles can carry viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and are so small that they float around a room and can linger for several minutes.

The elderly, those with a high BMI and infected cases are more likely to be profuse respirators spitting out huge amounts of infectious particles, research shows.

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 increased production of exhaled aerosols, indicating that fatter and older people are the worst offenders for being heavy-breathing super-spreaders.

The study reveals a “ classic 20:80 spread ” distribution, note the study authors.

The so-called 80:20 rule means that for something to be scientifically considered to be a very common event, at least 80% of infections must be caused by at most 20% of the population.

“The super-diffusion phenomenon of COVID-19 may be not only a matter of drafts and proximity of infected and naive hosts, but also of phenotype,” the scientists write in their article published in PNAS.

The exhaled breaths of 194 healthy people were studied by scientists at Harvard, MIT and Tulane University.

They also deliberately gave Covid to eight monkeys to see if the coronavirus infection was affecting the amount of aerosols produced.

In their study, the authors claim that the Covid-19 particles produced by infected primates “ rise to a crescendo ” one week after infection before returning to normal after two weeks in the same way as in the man.

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 respiratory tract can weaken the mucus in the respiratory tract, which promotes the movement of infectious particles in this environment,” he said.

Lead author Dr. David Edwards of Harvard estimates that the number of respiratory droplets a person produces changes depending on their body and health.

“ While our results show that young and healthy people tend to generate significantly fewer droplets than older, less healthy ones, they also show that each of us, when infected with COVID -19, may run the risk of producing a large number of respiratory droplets. ,’ he said.

Previous research has revealed that joggers can also be super-spreaders of the virus.

A video, made 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. when you walk, run or cycle.

“ If we see a whale or a dolphin blowing into their blowhole, we can see the water and jump out of the way if we have to, ” Marc Horner, senior healthcare engineer at Ansys, told DailyMail.com

“ But if someone sneezes or coughs, it happens so fast and the droplets are so small, [the simulation gets] that mental picture in your mind of how far away you have to stand for gravity to have time to pull the droplets down.