COVID Virus Lives Longer with Higher CO2 In the Air

  • Topic: COVID 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom.G
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Co2 Virus
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
3 replies · 3K views
Science Advisor
Gold Member
Messages
5,661
Reaction score
4,509
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: DaveE and Lnewqban
Biology news on Phys.org
Tom.G said:
Popular, lengthy article with many embedded links, which I have not followed.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/

Research Article:
Ambient carbon dioxide concentration correlates with SARS-CoV-2 aerostability and infection risk
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5

Cheers,
Tom
There have been a large number of studies that have looked at the risk of infection and ventilation. If someone is infected and secreting virus in an enclosed space, the amount of virus that anyone else is exposed to will increase rapidly. Good ventilation effectively dilutes the amount of virus in the air, it also reduces C02. These are really, simple correlations that provide no real evidence that the C02 is anything more than a proxy measure of ventilation. I can't even figure out why or indeed how these have been published.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: OmCheeto, Tom.G, BillTre and 2 others
Laroxe said:
These are really, simple correlations that provide no real evidence that the C02 is anything more than a proxy measure of ventilation.
This is why building codes use CO2 concentration as a proxy measure for contolling required ventilation.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes   Reactions: Laroxe, Astronuc and BillTre
Not quite what the article finds.

The study used artificial air in a lab setting and varied the CO2 concentration. They found that the virus was suppressed when the CO2 concentration was <=500ppm, versus the 'well ventilated' room concentration of ≈800ppm.

See the article for details.