Title:
The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Authors:
Valentyn Stadnytskyi, Christina E. Bax, Adriaan Bax & Philip Anfinrud
Published:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 13 May 2020
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/12/2006874117
From the abstract:
"Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second."