Extended Data Fig. 9: Respiratory virus shedding in respiratory droplets and aerosols stratified by days from symptom onset for (a) coronavirus, (b) influenza virus or (c) rhinovirus.
From: Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks
The figures shows the virus copies per sample collected in nasal swab (red), throat swab (blue), respiratory droplets (dark green) and aerosols (brown) collected for 30 min while not wearing a surgical face mask, stratified by the number of days from symptom onset on which the respiratory droplets and aerosols were collected. For nasal swabs and throat swabs, all infected individuals were included (coronavirus, n = 17; influenza virus, n = 43; rhinovirus, n = 54). For respiratory droplets and aerosols, numbers of infected individuals who provided exhaled breath samples while not wearing or wearing a surgical face mask, respectively were: coronavirus (n = 10 and 11), influenza virus (n = 23 and 28), rhinovirus (n = 36 and 32). A subset of participants provided exhaled breath samples for both mask interventions (coronavirus, n = 4; influenza virus, n = 8; rhinovirus, n = 14). The box plots indicate the median with the interquartile range (lower and upper hinge) and ± 1.5 × interquartile range from the first and third quartile (lower and upper whisker).
