NEW YORK – At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone.
They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough. The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses.
It's part of a device called “Gesundheit II” that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another?
It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person. People expel particles while coughing, sneezing, singing, shouting, talking and even breathing.