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by datalopers 1459 days ago
> respiratory droplets (and possibly short-range aerosols)

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is the above not the definition of airborne?

1 comments

Yes, it is, but IIRC the term "airborne" can also refer to disease particles that can survive in the air unencapsulated (such as certain fungi), and can therefore travel quite some distance, and can remain hanging in the air for hours.

Aerosols are heavier than air, and therefore have a very limited range and duration in which the virus can remain "airborne" in common parlance.

(edit: expanded the definition to include more than just viruses as I couldn't find an example of a virus that can survive unencapsulated)

Cool, thank you for the clarfication!