ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
An upper bound on one-to-one exposure to infectious human respiratory particles.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Pooled it
- COVID-19 Pandemic Increases the Impact of Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Metanalysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Influence of face masks on the subjective impairment at different physical workloads.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Carbon dioxide rises beyond acceptable safety levels in children under nose and mouth covering: Results of an experimental measurement study in healthy children.Environmental research · 2022Trial
- Optimal prevention and control strategy of infectious disease: Cost-effectiveness analysis based on a modified dynamic model with economic loss.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Aerosol emission rates from breathing, speaking, and speaking with a surgical mask.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Timing and type of personal protective equipment adherence lapses in pediatric trauma resuscitation: A retrospective video study.American journal of infection control · 2025Article
- Protocol: a systematic review+ (SR+) to combine associative and mechanistic evidence on the efficacy of face masks in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Do We Need Titanium Dioxide (TiOToxics · 2025Review
- An image dataset for surveillance of personal protective equipment adherence in healthcare.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Comparative analysis of personal protective equipment nonadherence detection: computer vision versus human observers.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Novel travel time aware metapopulation models and multi-layer waning immunity for late-phase epidemic and endemic scenarios.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Modelling indoor airborne transmission combining architectural design and people movement using the VIRIS simulator and web app.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Adsorption-Driven Deformation and Footprints of the RBD Proteins in SARS-CoV-2 Variants on Biological and Inanimate Surfaces.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2024Article
- Too Many Deaths, Too Many Left Behind: A People's External Review of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 Pandemic Response.AJPM focus · 2024Article
- Highly efficient microbial inactivation enabled by tunneling charges injected through two-dimensional electronics.Science advances · 2024Article
- Resolving the Loss of Intermediate-Size Speech Aerosols in Funnel-Guided Particle Counting Measurement.Atmosphere · 2024Article
- Survey of public knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding personal protection against COVID-19 in the post-pandemic era.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is ample evidence that masking and social distancing are effective in reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. However, due to the complexity of airborne disease transmission, it is difficult to quantify their effectiveness, especially in the case of one-to-one exposure. Here, we introduce the concept of an upper bound for one-to-one exposure to infectious human respiratory particles and apply it to SARS-CoV-2. To calculate exposure and infection risk, we use a comprehensive database on respiratory particle size distribution; exhalation flow physics; leakage from face masks of various types and fits measured on human subjects; consideration of ambient particle shrinkage due to evaporation; and rehydration, inhalability, and deposition in the susceptible airways. We find, for a typical SARS-CoV-2 viral load and infectious dose, that social distancing alone, even at 3.0 m between two speaking individuals, leads to an upper bound of 90% for risk of infection after a few minutes. If only the susceptible wears a face mask with infectious speaking at a distance of 1.5 m, the upper bound drops very significantly; that is, with a surgical mask, the upper bound reaches 90% after 30 min, and, with an FFP2 mask, it remains at about 20% even after 1 h. When both wear a surgical mask, while the infectious is speaking, the very conservative upper bound remains below 30% after 1 h, but, when both wear a well-fitting FFP2 mask, it is 0.4%. We conclude that wearing appropriate masks in the community provides excellent protection for others and oneself, and makes social distancing less important.
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