Increased aerosol transmission for B.1.1.7 (alpha variant) over lineage A variant of SARS-CoV-2
Open accessAbstract
Airborne transmission, a term combining both large droplet and aerosol transmission, is thought to be the main transmission route of SARS-CoV-2. Here we investigated the relative efficiency of aerosol transmission of two variants of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7 (alpha) and lineage A, in the Syrian hamster. A novel transmission caging setup was designed and validated, which allowed the assessment of transmission efficiency at various distances. At 2 meters distance, only particles <5 µm traversed between cages. In this setup, aerosol transmission was confirmed in 8 out of 8 (N = 4 for each variant) sentinels after 24 hours of exposure as demonstrated by respiratory shedding and seroconversion. Successful transmission occurred even when exposure time was limited to one hour, highlighting the efficiency of this transmission route. Interestingly, the B.1.1.7 variant outcompeted the lineage A variant in an airborne transmission chain after mixed infection of donors. Combined, this data indicates that the infectious dose of B.1.1.7 required for successful transmission may be lower than that of lineage A virus. The experimental proof for true aerosol transmission and the increase in the aerosol transmission potential of B.1.1.7 underscore the continuous need for assessment of novel variants and the development or preemptive transmission mitigation strategies.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Laboratory, field, modelling, and case studies have shown that airborne transmission through inhalation of virus-laden aerosol is important, if not dominant, for COVID-19.
“Laboratory, field, modelling, and case studies have shown that airborne transmission through the inhalation of a virus-laden aerosol is important, if not dominant, for COVID-19.119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [123]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Chu, D. K., Akl, E. A., Duda, S., Solo, K., Yaacoub, S., Schünemann, H. J., Chu, D. K., Akl, E. A., El-harakeh, A., Bognanni, A., et al. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31142-9 · Cited by 3,843 · see citing works
Estimated transmissibility and impact of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 in England
Davies, N. G., Abbott, S., Barnard, R. C., Jarvis, C. I., Kucharski, A. J., Munday, J. D., Pearson, C. A. B., Russell, T. W., Tully, D. C., Washburne, A. D., et al. (2021) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abg3055 · Cited by 2,633 · see citing works
Assessing transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 in England
The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, Volz, E., Mishra, S., Chand, M., Barrett, J. C., Johnson, R., Geidelberg, L., Hinsley, W. R., Laydon, D. J., Dabrera, G., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03470-x · Cited by 1,611 · see citing works
Spike mutation D614G alters SARS-CoV-2 fitness
Plante, J. A., Liu, Y., Liu, J., Xia, H., Johnson, B. A., Lokugamage, K. G., Zhang, X., Muruato, A. E., Zou, J., Fontes-Garfias, C. R., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2895-3 · Cited by 1,558 · see citing works
Particle Sizes of Infectious Aerosols: Implications for Infection Control
Fennelly, K. P. (2020) · The Lancet Respiratory Medicine · doi:10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30323-4 · Cited by 621 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
Sachs, J. D., Karim, S. S. A., Aknin, L., Allen, J., Brosbøl, K., Colombo, F., Barron, G. C., Espinosa, M. F., Gaspar, V., Gaviria, A., et al. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01585-9 · Cited by 842 · see citing works
- Authors
- Port, J. R., Yinda, C. K., Avanzato, V. A., Schulz, J. E., Holbrook, M. G., van Doremalen, N., Shaia, C., Fischer, R. J., & Munster, V. J.
- Affiliations
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US)
- Corresponding author
- Munster, Vincent J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Publisher
- openRxiv
- Published
- 2021-07-26
- PMC
- PMC8328059
- OpenAlex
- W3185029031
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2022: 7 · 2021: 2
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1ziaai001179-01)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM008169)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (1ZIAAI001179, 1ZIAAI001179-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Infection Control and Ventilation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7 Alpha variant, airborne transmission, Syrian hamster model, seroconversion, co-infection, viral competition, infectious dose
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
