Using Lasers to See COVID-19 Viral Transmission Particles.
This is SARS-CoV 2, AKA the 0.1 μm (about the size of bacteria) virus that completely took over our world.
If I’m being honest it does look a little funky looking but don’t be fooled because this virus is the reason you’re probably reading this at home, and not at Starbucks.
SARS-CoV 2 (COVID-19 virus) is a single-stranded RNA virus transmitted through the air. As of April 12, 2021, 2.94 million people have died due to this virus and another 136.1 million people have tested positive for COVID-19.
If the pandemic lasts past October 2021, it will cost the US government an estimated $16 trillion USD. In 2020 alone, the Canadian government spent $240 billion CAD on things like COVID-19 relief, small business bailouts and PPE equipment.
So how does this virus that’s smaller than the mitochondria, (the powerhouse of the cell) able to cause this many deaths and cost us this much? It starts with viral transmission. (If you’re looking for a debrief on what viruses are and how they work, you can check out a previous article I wrote here.)
What is viral transmission?
You can think of viral transmission as a complicated network of subway systems that are meant for viruses. This network describes how a virus gets from one place to another, and we call this viral transmission because most of them can’t move long distances on their own
These are the different types of viral transmission
- Direct Contact — having physical contact between an infected person and a susceptible person (this includes the transmission of STI’s and touching)
- Indirect Contact — coming in contact with a contaminated surface, some viruses can last days on surfaces and still make you sick
- Droplet Contact — large droplets in the air containing viruses coming in contact with the eye, nose and mouth
- Airborne — small water droplets that are capable of staying in the air for long periods of time and come in contact with eye, nose and mouth
- Fecal-Oral — pathogens found in feces that are ingested, usually associated with organisms that infect the digestive system
- Vector-borne — vectors are middle-men to spread disease. (eg. mice, rats, fleas, mosquitoes). Vectors can move around freely and will increase the range of infection
How is COVID-19 transmitted?
COVID-19 is transmitted via droplet contact transmission. This is not the same as airborne transmission.
Droplet transmission and airborne transmission both deal with droplets that come out of your mouth, but droplet transmission particles are bigger than airborne transmission particles.
Droplet transmission droplets fall straight to the ground since the particles are larger. But airborne transmission particles are basically indestructible, they can stay suspended in the air, travel through vents and any viruses inside the droplets would still be transmissible. And because they’re so small, their droplets don’t get filtered by mucus in your lungs, it’s basically a one-way ticket to the host.
This is what makes face masks so effective in stopping the COVID-19 virus from being released into the wild. The larger droplets that could potentially contain the COVID-19 virus get stopped by face mask fabric and stop any chance of COVID-19 from infecting someone else.
This is also why socially distancing works. The large droplets fall to the ground in 1–2m because they’re so heavy. By staying 1–2m away from others there is no chance that the virus could ever make it to your face.
But there’s one problem.
Even though they are heavy and fall to the ground, they’re really hard to see and it’s hard to believe that they exist. So to see for myself whether it really is true, I decided to build a laser box.
…why a laser box?
Lasers are freaking awesome!! That and lasers can reflect light off of really tiny particles, like the water droplets that helped the COVID-19 virus throughout the world.
(By the way, this project is super easy to build and I highly encourage you to try it yourself.)
Getting my hands dirty and starting to build it
First I built a styrofoam box using a black bristol board and hot glue. You need to cut 5 sides of a rectangle with a hole on one side so you can talk into the box.
Then I bought a level laser, we need a laser sheet in order to see the droplet particles to pass through. Normally level lasers are for levelling things, but we’re going to use it anyways.
All that’s left to do is to put your phone on the opposite side of the hole so that the camera faces the hole, turn on the level laser and… sneeze!
Results!!
Since level lasers aren’t designed to identify water droplets… the particles that we’re able to see and record are going to be only droplet particles, not airborne particles. This also means that you need to either cough or sneeze into the box. Yes, the box get’s really disgusting but it’ll all be worth it in the end.
This is what you’ll see:
Here’s a screenshot of the clip to help
Isn’t it cool that we can see potential virus-containing particles on our phones? It doesn’t show all the droplet particles but it does show that the COVID-19 virus transportation system is real, and it can be stopped simply by wearing a mask.
What would happen if everyone wore a mask?
Here’s a map of the number of people wearing a mask by percentage:
Here’s the amount of cases per 100k:
COVID-19 virus transmission would be extremely difficult, which means that fewer people would become infected with COVID-19 and the virus would slow in spreading around the globe. Wearing masks has been shown to be more effective in slowing virus transmission and more economically friendly than a lockdown. Since masks are cheaper to manufacture, easier to distribute, and easier to enforce.
Since COVID-19 is an RNA virus, it doesn’t have the ‘proofreading’ system that a DNA virus do because DNA viruses have two copies of their genetic content, and an RNA virus only has one. Less transmission would also lead to a smaller likelihood of mutations in coronavirus and lead to fewer variants of the COVID-19 virus.
Just by stopping viral transmission, we target all aspects of the pandemic and effectively say goodbye to the COVID-19 virus. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of other moving parts that need to be factored in, but something as simple as wearing masks is such a crucial part where you and I can make a difference.
It is estimated that by July 2021, daily infections could be reduced to 4,395 people per day with a 95% mask usage in the United States. This is compared to 13,821 infections per day based on current projections.
Stopping viral transmission is the key to slowing this pandemic. One extra mask worn, is one less person transmitting the COVID-19 virus and is one more step towards getting back to normal.
Key Takeaways
- SARS-CoV2 (AKA COVID-19 virus) travel inside water droplets and is transmitted through droplet transmission
- Airborne transmission is not the same as droplet transmission since airborne particles are much smaller and can stay in the air much longer
- facial masks can stop droplet particles from entering your environment and stop viral transmission
Still Interested?
Here’s some more fun stuff you can check out!
