physicists found out how new type coronavirus particles interact with pollen plants. Scientists believe that pollen can accelerate the transfer of SARS-COV-2 between people. The findings of the researchers published the scientific journal of Physics of Fluids.
TASS writes that in the spring of this year, reports that pollen plants may have begun to appear that the pollen of plants may contribute to the spread of coronavirus infection. They were associated with the fact that European biologists noticed that many local outbreaks of the world pandemic COVID-19 coincided with the episodes of flowering of various plants in the territory of individual regions of Europe.
These observations caused a mass of disputes about whether there is really a similar relationship and how exactly the pollen of plants can contribute to the spread of SARS-COV-2. Part of the scientists suggested that it can weaken immunity and make lungs more vulnerable to infections, while others tied this phenomenon so that pollen particles can act as a “delivery tool” of the virus.
Scientists checked the fairness of the second theory by creating a realistic computer model of blooming willow and a group of several dozen people located next to it, among which there are several carriers of coronavirus infection. Using this model, experts calculated how the coronavirus and pollen particles will interact, and also traced how the speed of propagation SARS-COV-2 will change at different concentrations of pollen in the air and with its complete absence.
It turned out that pollen significantly accelerated the spread of coronavirus even if the speed of wind movement on the street would be minimal. On average grain pollen allow SARS-COV-2 particles to fly more than six meters after they were thrown into the air as a result of cough or sneezing infected people. Under normal conditions, they fly no more than two meters.
As a result, patients with pedestrians should noticeably convey coronavirus to others what it happens in the absence of pollen in the air. According to scientists, this feature of the interactions of pollen and the virus can explain why some regions of the United States and Europe, such as Louisiana and Spain, survived in the last year inexplicable summer splashes spread COVID-19.