OMAHA- Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center were the first to report back in July 2020 that the virus that causes COVID-19 was present in small particles exhaled by infected people.

Initially, the idea that the coronavirus could spread through the air via airborne transmission wasn’t widely accepted. The World Health Organization at first concluded that the virus was spread by larger droplets such as those produced when people sneeze or cough.

That since has changed, with both the WHO and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledging that airborne transmission plays a role in the disease’s spread.

“At this point, it’s fairly well accepted that aerosols are a primary part of the transmission of COVID-19,” said Joshua Santarpia, an associate professor of pathology and microbiology at UNMC. He is one of three UNMC co-principal investigators involved in the study, with St. Patrick Reid and John Lowe.

Their findings about transmission, and those of others, have implications for the kind of steps people need to take to protect themselves from COVID-19.

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