‘This is not the impression being presented by the government though. Their message seems to centre around sneezing or coughing, which is how that they arrived at the 2 metre rule. I am beginning to think this Covid-19 is more akin to measles in terms of infection transmission, in that it can remain airborne and be carried greater distances than 2 metres in airflow / air currents.
There is a great deal of dangerous / incorrect information being put out by official organisations. Prior to the lock down, British Cycling were advising 2 metre spacing between riders. Well at 15 mph, you are travelling at over 7 m/s. If the front rider sneeze, at least two riders behind will be contaminated at 15 mph.
I think the general 2 metre spacing in place now is too close. I’m only comfortable with 10 metres, plus a mask.
As before, there needs to be a sense of realism here. The key point about getting an infection is being bombarded by lots of virus particles . Even absorbing one or two will be unlikely to cause infection ,and were it to, the natural body defenses will cope. It is if they get overwhelmed , and cannot produce antibodies faster than the virus factory , that one gets sick. That concept is viral load.
Now even if a person is producing say 100K particles per breath of 1 litre every second, and a person is 2 metres away .. the volume of air in a 2 metre radius sphere is . 10 cubic metres . A litre is 1/1000 of cubic metre , so that viral load is reduced 10,000 fold . Obviously if you stay in that proximity long enough , you will absorb enough..
Of course futher away the better.. as the intensity drops off as the cube of the separation .. except of course for directed flow.. like blowing directly into someones face.
