Airborne

coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough.The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses. It's part of a device called “Gesundheit…

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has stressed that, primarily, Covid-19 spreads through very close personal contact. The virus-laden droplets exhaled from a sick person’s mouth and nose, the thinking goes, are heavy, and fall to the ground before they can get much farther than 6 feet. But as the pandemic…

The World Health Organization has expanded its coronavirus guidance to include the possibility in certain circumstances of airborne transmission, in which the virus could be spread through tiny droplets that linger in the air.The update came Thursday after an open letter signed by more than 200 scientists pressed the agency this week to acknowledge the…

Aurelien Meunier/Getty For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website. An open letter, signed by 239 researchers from 32 countries, sent to public health bodies, including the World Health Organization, on Monday argues there's significant evidence the coronavirus can persist in the air and spread in tiny, airborne…

Aurelien Meunier/Getty For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website. An open letter, signed by 239 researchers from 32 countries, sent to public health bodies, including the World Health Organization, on Monday argues there's significant evidence the coronavirus can persist in the air and spread in tiny, airborne…