Thread by @linseymarr

Delighted to have collaborated with @MicroLevitator @jfdavies and team to continue our deep dive into understanding mechanisms of virus decay in droplets and aerosols. /1

https://twitter.com/MicroLevitator/status/1485090698814636036

Levitated aerosols of various model fluids--we did not test any real respiratory fluids--evaporate and become semi-solid at moderate relative humidity (RH), solid at low RH. Diffusion of potential disinfectants would be inhibited, slowing kinetics of decay reactions. /2

We expect kinetics to also be affected by solute concentrations, which increase at lower RH, so a competing effect. elifesciences.org/articles/65902 by @dylanhmorris & co-authors /3

Exposure time and evaporation kinetics matter, as shown by @kaisen_lin. pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.102… /4

Ultimately, we're interested in seeing if RH-dependent decay contributes to seasonality of respiratory viruses. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… /5

Very complex. We showed previously that flu survived well at all RHs when we included mucus etc. from bronchial epithelial cells. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29878137/ @Lakdawala_Lab /6

Furthermore, environmental persistence of influenza viruses is dependent on virus type and host origin ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… also with @Lakdawala_Lab /7

Immune response also matters, as reviewed by @VirusesImmunity pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32196426/ I thought we had it figured out a long time ago, but the deeper we go, the more questions I have. We'll keep at it! /8