Infectious SARS-CoV-2 is emitted in aerosols
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Abstract
Respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 are transmitted in respiratory droplets and aerosols, which are released during talking, breathing, coughing, and sneezing. Non-contact transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated, suggesting transmission in aerosols. Here we demonstrate that golden Syrian hamsters emit infectious SARS-CoV-2 in aerosols, prior to and concurrent with the onset of mild clinical signs of disease. The average emission rate is 25 infectious virions/hour on days 1 and 2 post-inoculation, with average viral RNA levels 200-fold higher than infectious virus in aerosols. Female hamsters have delayed kinetics of viral shedding in aerosols compared to male hamsters, with peak viral emission for females on dpi 2 and for males on dpi 1. The majority of virus is contained within aerosols <8 µm in size. Thus, we provide direct evidence that, in hamsters, SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.10.455702: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Euthanasia Agents: At the termination of studies, or when clinical signs of disease such as 15% weight loss were present, hamsters were euthanized via CO2 inhalation, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and lung tissue were collected.
IACUC: Ethics statement: All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (IACUC protocol 20-184).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Viruses and … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.10.455702: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Euthanasia Agents: At the termination of studies, or when clinical signs of disease such as 15% weight loss were present, hamsters were euthanized via CO2 inhalation, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and lung tissue were collected.
IACUC: Ethics statement: All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (IACUC protocol 20-184).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Viruses and cell lines: Inoculations were performed using SARS-CoV-2 strain USA-WA1/2020 (BEI Resources), which was passaged once in Vero E6 cells followed by once in Vero cells upon receipt. Vero E6suggested: RRID:CVCL_XD71)Viral quantification: Plaque assays: Infectious virus was quantified via Vero cell plaque assay. Verosuggested: CLS Cat# 605372/p622_VERO, RRID:CVCL_0059)Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources All statistics were performed in GraphPad Prism 9. GraphPad Prismsuggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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