Elderly, Obese are Real Coronavirus Superspreaders

The elderly and obese can be superspreaders of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus, research has shown.

The study was conducted by Harvard University MIT in association with Tulane University, and Massachusetts General Hospital, in the United States, as well as with the involvement of 194 people participants, and non-human primates with coronavirus, whose ages ranged between 19 to 66.

The researchers discovered that those who were older with higher body mass indexes and an increasing degree of coronavirus infection had three times the number of exhaled respiratory droplets as others in the study groups.

They noted that understanding the respiratory droplet generation's source and variance can help to effectively reduce virus transmission.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.