ArticleScientific reports2022
Viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in droplets and bioaerosols directly captured during breathing, speaking and coughing.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 shedding in exhaled material: a systematic review.Epidemiology and infection · 2025Pooled it
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Nasal inhalation of antiviral microparticulate powders to target early infection of upper airways.Drug delivery and translational research · 2026Article
- Designing Scalable Mechano-Virucidal Nanostructured Acrylic Surfaces for Enhanced Viral Inactivation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- The Role of Enoxaparin in Influenza Virus Infections and its Therapeutic Implications.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Heterogeneity of Airborne Virus Transmission in the Built Environment: A Narrative Review.Pathogens & immunity · 2026Review
- Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on air purifier filters in university spaces without symptomatic or confirmed cases.Aerosol science and technology : the journal of the American Association for Aerosol Research · 2025Article
- Speaking Different Languages Impacts Size-Resolved Exhaled Breath Aerosol Particle Emission.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 bioaerosol transmission in experimentally infected American mink.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Amino acid substitutions in NSP6 and NSP13 of SARS-CoV-2 contribute to superior virus growth at low temperatures.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Real-world evaluation of a QCM-based biosensor for exhaled air.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2024Article
- Symptom propagation in respiratory pathogens of public health concern: a review of the evidence.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Review
- Frequency, kinetics and determinants of viable SARS-CoV-2 in bioaerosols from ambulatory COVID-19 patients infected with the Beta, Delta or Omicron variants.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- A narrative review of alternative transmission routes of COVID 19: what we know so far.Pathogens and global health · 2023Review
- Airborne SARS-CoV-2 is more frequently detected in environments related to children and elderly but likely non-infectious, Norway, 2022.Virology journal · 2023Article
- Sampling and recovery of infectious SARS-CoV-2 from high-touch surfaces by sponge stick and macrofoam swab.Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 transmission modes: Why and how contamination occurs around shared meals and drinks?Food microbiology · 2023Review
- Rapid Direct Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Aerosols in Exhaled Breath at the Point of Care.ACS sensors · 2023Article
- Mask device as a new wearable sampler for breath analysis: what can we expect in the future?Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Determining the viral load and infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in macroscopic respiratory droplets, bioaerosols, and other bodily fluids and secretions is important for identifying transmission modes, assessing risks and informing public health guidelines. Here we show that viral load of SARS-CoV-2 Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) in participants' naso-pharyngeal (NP) swabs positively correlated with RNA viral load they emitted in both droplets >10 [Formula: see text] and bioaerosols <10 [Formula: see text] directly captured during the combined expiratory activities of breathing, speaking and coughing using a standardized protocol, although the NP swabs had [Formula: see text] 10[Formula: see text] more RNA on average. By identifying highly-infectious individuals (maximum of 18,000 PFU/mL in NP), we retrieved higher numbers of SARS-CoV-2 RNA gene copies in bioaerosol samples (maximum of 4.8[Formula: see text] gene copies/mL and minimum cycle threshold of 26.2) relative to other studies. However, all attempts to identify infectious virus in size-segregated droplets and bioaerosols were negative by plaque assay (0 of 58). This outcome is partly attributed to the insufficient amount of viral material in each sample (as indicated by SARS-CoV-2 gene copies) or may indicate no infectious virus was present in such samples, although other possible factors are identified.
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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.