This Is Why How Much Covid-19 You're Exposed To Matters
By now, most if not all of us know someone who has contracted Covid-19, or in the very least, been exposed to it. A family member, a friend of a friend, a colleague. Covid-19 is everywhere. And the experience often plays out differently from person to person.
Some people are exposed to the virus briefly and go on to develop a severe, life-threatening infection. Others unknowingly spend hours with an infectious person and develop a mild illness. And a lucky handful who are directly exposed to someone with the virus never get infected.
Experts suspect there’s a mix of factors impacting how sick people get after being exposed to the coronavirus. There’s our age and genetics along with underlying health conditions — but the viral load and circumstances in which we’re exposed play a pretty big role, too.
Being exposed to a high viral load generally leads to a rougher go of it. There are ways to minimise how much virus you breathe in, so even if you get exposed, you’ll hopefully get less sick.
Here’s why viral load matters:
A High Viral Load Can Make You Sicker
Evidence shows that viral load, or the amount of virus a person is exposed to, can influence how sick someone will get.
The best data we have on viral load comes from animal studies. They’ve taught us that, in general, the more virus an animal is exposed to, the sicker they’ll get, said Benjamin Neuman, a virologist and the head of the biology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
A Syrian study conducted on hamsters found that animals injected with a higher SARS-CoV-2 viral load had more severe lesions in the lungs and experienced greater weight loss. With both SARS and MERS, two deadly coronaviruses behind past epidemics, being exposed to higher infectious doses led to worse outcomes.
“Virus particles are like lottery tickets,” Neuman said. “The more you are exposed to, the greater the chance of catching the disease.”
Virus particles are like lottery tickets. The more you...
