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Of course it can also spread in larger droplets
It surprises me that in developing and explaining public health guidelines for the current pandemic, experts haven’t made more use of the similarities in size between virus particles and tobacco smoke particles. Whether we are smokers or not, most of us are familiar with how tobacco smoke spreads indoors and outdoors. Indoors it can spread fairly quickly to all parts of a room, with the concentration depending on how many cigarettes are burned. Outdoors it disperses fairly quickly, especially if there are breezes.
That fact that virus particles are about the same size, or even smaller than smoke particles suggests that indoors virus particles can spread fairly quickly to all parts of a room, while outdoors they disperse fairly quickly. That suggests, further, that a “social distancing” guideline of 6 feet offers almost no protection from airborne virus particles in poorly ventilated rooms. Both indoors and outdoors it might be clearer to advise people to “stay as far away from other people who might be sick as you would if they were smoking and you didn’t want to inhale their smoke.”
Also, in judging how effective various kinds of masks are for blocking virus particles, a simple test could be this: Can you smell cigarette smoke through your mask? If…
