• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Saturday, September 27, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Estimating risk of airborne COVID-19 with mask usage, social distancing

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
October 26, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

The Contagion Airborne Transmission inequality model illustrates correlation between physical distancing and protection, the efficacy of face masks and the impact of physical activity on transmission.

IMAGE

Credit: Rajat Mittal, Charles Meneveau and Wen Wu

WASHINGTON, October 26, 2020 — The continued increase in COVID-19 infection around the world has led scientists from many different fields, including biomedicine, epidemiology, virology, fluid dynamics, aerosol physics, and public policy, to study the dynamics of airborne transmission.

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Mississippi used a model to understand airborne transmission that is designed to be accessible to a wide range of people, including nonscientists.

Employing basic concepts of fluid dynamics and the known factors in airborne transmission of diseases, the researchers propose the Contagion Airborne Transmission (CAT) inequality model. While not all factors in the CAT inequality model may be known, it can still be used to assess relative risks, since situational risk is proportional to exposure time.

Using the model, the researchers determined protection from transmission increases with physical distancing in an approximately linear proportion.

“If you double your distance, you generally double your protection,” said author Rajat Mittal. “This kind of scaling or rule can help inform policy.”

The scientists also found even simple cloth masks provide significant protection and could reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“We also show that any physical activity that increases the breathing rate and volume of people will increase the risk of transmission,” said Mittal. “These findings have important implications for the reopening of schools, gyms, or malls.”

The CAT inequality model is inspired by the Drake equation in astrobiology and develops a similar factorization based on the idea that airborne transmission occurs if a susceptible person inhales a viral dose that exceeds the minimum infectious dose.

The model includes variables that can added at each of the three stages of airborne transmission: the generation, expulsion, and aerosolization of the virus-containing droplets from the mouth and nose of an infected host; the dispersion and transport via ambient air currents; and the inhalation of droplets or aerosols and the deposition of the virus in the respiratory mucosa in a susceptible person.

The researchers hope to look more closely at face mask efficiency and the transmission details in high-density outdoor spaces. Beyond COVID-19, this model based on the CAT inequality could apply to the airborne transmission of other respiratory infections, such as flu, tuberculosis, and measles.

###

The article, “A mathematical framework for estimating risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 with application to face mask use and social distancing,” is authored by Rajat Mittal, Charles Meneveau, and Wen Wu. The article appears in Physics of Fluids and can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0025476.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/phf.

Media Contact
Larry Frum
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0025476

Tags: Algorithms/ModelsBiologyBiomechanics/BiophysicsChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesEpidemiologyInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMathematics/StatisticsMedicine/Health
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Salutogenic Approach Reduces Frailty in Pre-Frail Women

September 27, 2025

Cannabis Use Patterns in Adults with FASD

September 27, 2025

Hypoxia Disrupts Anti-Inflammatory Microglial Response to β-Amyloid

September 27, 2025

Trust in Healthcare: Key to Medicating Older Adults

September 27, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    82 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Scientists Discover and Synthesize Active Compound in Magic Mushrooms Again

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • Tailored Gene-Editing Technology Emerges as a Promising Treatment for Fatal Pediatric Diseases

    51 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 13

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Co-doped MnFe2O4: Temperature Effects on Conductivity

Salutogenic Approach Reduces Frailty in Pre-Frail Women

Advanced Battery Temperature Estimation via Optimized Algorithms

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.