Coronavirus News Roundup, May 30–June 5
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/coronavirus-news-roundup-may-30-june-5/
The items below are highlights from the newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here.
Here’s an illustrated primer on how to hug in ways that reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, featuring the insights of Virginia Tech aerosol scientist Linsey Marr. Marr reportedly thinks that the “risk of exposure during a brief hug can be surprisingly low — even if you hugged a person who didn’t know they were infected and they happened to cough.” To get infected, you would have to inhale or ingest somewhere between 200 to 1,000 copies of the new coronavirus, the story states. It sounds like we take in only 2 percent of the liquid from a nearby person’s cough and only a very small portion of that is infectious. The safest approach, writes Parker-Pope, is no hugging. The second safest approach is a quick hug while a) outdoors, b) wearing a facial mask, and c) not touching the other person’s body or clothes with your face or mask, the story states. By Tara Parker-Pope at The New York Times (6/4/20).