Open AccessDroplets and aerosols: An artificial dichotomy in respiratory virus transmission
Author(s) -
Drossinos Yannis,
Weber Thomas P.,
Stilianakis Nikolaos I.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health science reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.462
H-Index - 7
ISSN - 2398-8835
DOI - 10.1002/hsr2.275
Subject(s) - transmission (telecommunications) , settling , aerosol , infectivity , airborne transmission , mechanics , covid-19 , virus , meteorology , materials science , physics , biology , virology , telecommunications , thermodynamics , computer science , medicine , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
In the medical literature, three mutually non‐exclusive modes of pathogen transmission associated with respiratory droplets are usually identified: contact, droplet, and airborne (or aerosol) transmission. The demarcation between droplet and airborne transmission is often based on a cut‐off droplet diameter, most commonly 5 μm. We argue here that the infectivity of a droplet, and consequently the transmissivity of the virus, as a function of droplet size is a continuum, depending on numerous factors (gravitational settling rate, transport, and dispersion in a turbulent air jet, viral load and viral shedding, virus inactivation) that cannot be adequately characterized by a single droplet diameter. We propose instead that droplet and aerosol transmission should be replaced by a unique airborne transmission mode, to be distinguished from contact transmission.