Air Viscosity, Temperature and Inactivation of COVID-19
The kinetics of airborne transmission — the mean free path
Until the outbreak of coronavirus disease, now abbreviated COVID-19, we had only known so much about tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox and various types of influenza viruses, which all happen to be airborne. To mean they are a group of highly contagious microorganisms transmitted through the air we breath. These infections arise when organisms are allowed to enter through to the upper and lower respiratory system namely: the nose, throat, and into the lungs in extreme cases¹. Besides the already dispensed recommendations to the public by the World Health Organization (WHO) among others, we use available literature in this essay to attempt and reiterate the importance of these guidelines by exploring the physico-chemical properties of air — the transmission medium.
Having explicitly labeled the transmission medium as air, understanding the kinetic theory of gas (air in this case), is as valuable as staying safe from COVID-19 pandemic. As such, our focus is on the effect of air temperature on viscosity, which in turn immensely determine the extent of transmission of the virus. Before we go farther than this, the single and most important point to make is that when an infected person breathes out or sneezes, air particles in form…
