General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola [View all]magical thyme
(14,881 posts)very small versus versus large droplet. It's the ability of sufficient virion to survive and infect via very small particles, in the lab mimicing exposure to sneezes and coughs. So, for example, TB has aerosolized transmission in the real world.
In the pig to macacque study, it may have been have been snorting pigs sending larger droplets, and some have argued that it could have been splashed water. But necropsies showed that the transmission was via the monkey's lungs.
There are two basic types of viruses: the kind the are wrapped in a protein coat, and the kind that have spikes that enable them to fuse with the host cell membrane. Many viruses are able to wrap themselves in the host membrane when they leave the cell, including herpes and Hep A (which persists in the environment with just its protein coat, but is wrapped after infecting. They honestly aren't sure how the vaccine works for it).