ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 571 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
571 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 shedding in exhaled material: a systematic review.Epidemiology and infection · 2025Pooled it
- The Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Community Indoor Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- High Frequencies of Senescent and Exhausted Natural Killer Cells and SARS-CoV-2-Specific Memory CD8Viruses · 2026Article
- Epidemiology of burn injuries in a Canadian population during the COVID-19 pandemic.Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention · 2026Article
- Gene Expression Profiling of SARS-CoV-2 Host Entry Factors in Nasal and Oral Cavities: Evidence from Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients.Current microbiology · 2026Article
- Electrospun biodegradable polycaprolactone filter media for filtering facepiece respirators.Journal of materials science. Polymers · 2026Article
- Viral threats to pregnancy: Global health risks in the era of pandemics.Advances in virus research · 2026Review
- Establishing a Preparedness Program: Lessons From COVID-19 to Strengthen Global Strategies for Future Pandemics.Cureus · 2025Review
- COVID Prevention Program: Rationale and methodology of a tailored behavioral intervention to prevent household and community spread of COVID-19 among Latinos.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Article
- Fluid dynamical pathways of airborne transmission while waiting in a line.Science advances · 2025Article
- A Microfluidic Chip-Based Integrated Device Combining Aerosol Sampling and LAMP-CRISPR Detection for Airborne Virus Surveillance.Biosensors · 2025Article
- Article
- Factors influencing bacterial viability on face masks and bactericidal effect of disinfection methods.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evolution of Antiviral Drug Resistance in SARS-CoV-2.Viruses · 2025Review
- Demography, sanitation and previous disease prevalence associate with COVID-19 deaths across Indian States.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Factors Affecting Reduction of Infectious Aerosols by Far-UVC and Portable HEPA Air Cleaners.ACS ES&T air · 2025Article
- CO2 and aerosol concentration during manual and mechanical chest compression while cardiopulmonary resuscitation.Medicine · 2025Article
- Risk assessment of infection of COVID-19 contacts based on scenario simulation.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2025Article
511 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
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- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Various mitigation measures have been implemented to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, including widely adopted social distancing and mandated face covering. However, assessing the effectiveness of those intervention practices hinges on the understanding of virus transmission, which remains uncertain. Here we show that airborne transmission is highly virulent and represents the dominant route to spread the disease. By analyzing the trend and mitigation measures in Wuhan, China, Italy, and New York City, from January 23 to May 9, 2020, we illustrate that the impacts of mitigation measures are discernable from the trends of the pandemic. Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the pandemic trends in the three epicenters. This protective measure alone significantly reduced the number of infections, that is, by over 78,000 in Italy from April 6 to May 9 and over 66,000 in New York City from April 17 to May 9. Other mitigation measures, such as social distancing implemented in the United States, are insufficient by themselves in protecting the public. We conclude that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent interhuman transmission, and this inexpensive practice, in conjunction with simultaneous social distancing, quarantine, and contact tracing, represents the most likely fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work also highlights the fact that sound science is essential in decision-making for the current and future public health pandemics.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.