ArticleHealth science reports2021
Droplets and aerosols: An artificial dichotomy in respiratory virus transmission.
Article in Health science reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- As a component of aseptic technique, Bunsen burners do not universally decrease deposition of microbe-containing particles.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Detection of airborne bovine coronavirus RNA in pen environments and exhaled breath of calves.JDS communications · 2026Article
- The dual threat: exploring the emergence of human metapneumovirus and SARS-CoV-2 coinfections in respiratory infections.3 Biotech · 2025Review
- Parameter optimization of femtosecond laser pulses for implant cavity preparation.Biomedical optics express · 2025Article
- Mitigating aerosol contamination: strategies for contamination-free scaling.GMS hygiene and infection control · 2025Review
- On modelling airborne infection risk.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Molecular Markers and Mechanisms of Influenza A Virus Cross-Species Transmission and New Host Adaptation.Viruses · 2024Review
- Effectiveness of a suction device for containment of pathogenic aerosols and droplets.PloS one · 2024Article
- Reduction of acute respiratory infections in day-care by non-pharmaceutical interventions: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- Learning from the Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A New Paradigm for Occupational Biohazard Assessment and Management.La Medicina del lavoro · 2023Article
- Effect of indoor temperature on the velocity fields and airborne transmission of sneeze droplets: An experimental study and transient CFD modeling.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Review
- Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection from breath - a proof-of-concept study.IJID regions · 2022Article
- Role of bioaerosol in virus transmission and material-based countermeasures.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2022Review
- The Viral Origin of Human Breast Cancer: From the Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus (MMTV) to the Human Betaretrovirus (HBRV).Viruses · 2022Review
- Article
- Article
- Estimates of the stochasticity of droplet dispersion by a cough.Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994) · 2021Article
- Evaluation of Residual Infectivity after SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Transmission in a Controlled Laboratory Setting.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Droplets and aerosols: An artificial dichotomy in respiratory virus transmission.Health science reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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.
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Registered trials
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.