The peak of the fifth wave should soon show the tip of its nose. And we've been living with Covid-19 for two years . Since then, all the hypotheses have been made, from the most absurd to the most plausible. But some things are now safe and in particular the transmission by aerosols of SARS-CoV-2 . In short, the Covid-19 virus is mainly found in the air, in the form of fine particles. The biggest problem ? Half of the infected would be asymptomatic . They are therefore not aware of being sick and even less of being a danger to others. The risk ? Even more transmission.
In order to avoid these contaminations , it has therefore been recommended for some time to constantly ventilate enclosed spaces where many people are. Thus, the transmission of the virus is limited . To support this reasoning, a study published on December 22 in Physics of Fluids, researchers from IBM Research Europe observed the pattern typical of a situation in which droplets are emitted by a whole row of passengers on board a ventilated train. In the case of a TGV, the air is blown in from above and extracted from below. The researchers therefore looked into the risk of contamination depending on your seat on the train.
Results ? The aisle side seat is the one that presents the most risk for someone who is not infected with Covid. The droplets emitted by the person sitting in the middle are headed straight for you. On the other hand, if you are placed on the aisle side and you are infected, then that is where you risk infecting the least number of people since your droplets go directly to the ventilation system, which chases these droplets. The best seat is therefore the side window since your droplets are expelled from above.
