Would just talking or breathing be enough to spread the Covid-19?

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Just talking and even breathing could be enough to spread the Covid-19. In any case, this is the message that the National Academy of Sciences sent to the White House. A discovery that could strengthen the interest and the role of masks to protect themselves from the virus. The governor of New York recommends everyone to go out with their faces covered.

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Covid-19 is known to spread through the air when a person coughs or sneezes. But since Wednesday April 1, the president of a committee of the venerable National Academy of Sciences American warns against a supposed new mode of transmission of the virus. In a letter to the White House, Professor Harvey Fineberg explains that the suspended micro-droplets generated by speech or respiration may well also contain and spread Covid-19.

For the moment, the conditional remains in place and research still needs to be done. But the scientist is based on an experiment from the University of Nebraska conducted in a Chinese hospital. The study highlights that the virus can remain suspended in the air during the cleaning of the ground or when a person moves. Thus, even a slight air pressure like that exerted by speech or breathing, could be enough to spread the virus without a violent sneezing being necessary.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, these suspended droplets are enough to infect a person who crosses their path. But the survival time of the virus in the air is still unknown and would depend in particular on the amount of virus expelled when a person speaks.

Professor Fineberg finally points out that if the risk exists in a closed room, it is almost zero in the open air, where the wind quickly disperses the micro-droplets.

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