It’s Not Whether You Were Exposed to the #Coronavirus. It’s How Much. - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/health/coronavirus-transmission-dose.html
Common respiratory viruses, like #influenza and other coronaviruses, should offer some insight. But researchers have found little consistency.
For #SARS, also a coronavirus, the estimated infective dose is just a few hundred particles. For #MERS, the infective dose is much higher, on the order of thousands of particles.
The new coronavirus, #SARS-CoV-2, is more similar to the SARS virus and, therefore, the infectious dose may be hundreds of particles, Dr. Rasmussen said.
But the virus has a habit of defying predictions.
Generally, people who harbor high levels of pathogens — whether from influenza, H.I.V. or SARS — tend to have more severe symptoms and are more likely to pass on the pathogens to others.
But in the case of the new coronavirus, people who have no symptoms seem to have viral loads — that is, the amount of virus in their bodies — just as high as those who are seriously ill, according to some studies.