Is 6 Feet Enough for Social Distancing? An MIT Researcher Says Droplets Carrying Coronavirus Can Travel Up to 27 Feet

MIT Researcher, Lydia Bourouiba, says exhalations, like coughs or sneezes, can cause gaseous clouds of droplets that can travel up to 27 feet.

The current WHO and CDC recommendations of keeping six feet away from an infected person with Coronavirus is based on “large droplets” that can only travel a short distance.

Bourouiba says “peak exhalation speeds can reach 33 to 100 feet per second and current surgical masks and N95 masks aren’t tested for those potential characteristics of respiratory emissions.”

She argues that the gaseous cloud can carry various sizes of droplets, not just large ones. Other researchers say that if droplets could travel up to 27 feet and still be infectious there would be many more people sick.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/03/31/coronavirus-could-travel-27-feet-stay-in-air-for-hours-mit-researcher/

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