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Covid

Coronavirus viral load

6 replies

Thingsthatgo · 03/05/2020 22:36

I read this on a crappy thing on Facebook claiming to be quoting from something medical, so I’m assuming it is utter rubbish, but I am interested in the science and wondered if anyone could explain the truth?
Basically this post claimed that if you got a large viral load of Coronavirus, for example by being in a close contact with someone who has it and then coughing, sneezing and breathing on you, you would be more ill than if you get a small dose of virus from touching something contaminated, and then touching your eyes.
I know that you’d be much more likely to get the virus from close contact, but does it also affect the intensity of the illness?

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katkit · 03/05/2020 22:39

I understand that to be true.

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maybemaybemaybe · 03/05/2020 22:39

I was wondering this too.. i think my household may have had it and I had it last, and it took me the longest by far to recover. So perhaps there's some truth there (as I prob got coughed at etc by all the others who had it first). Although of course what we had may not have been coronavirus, we never got tested.

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dementedpixie · 03/05/2020 22:43

That's infective dose not viral load. Viral load is how much you shed whereas infective dose is the amount required to actually infect you. I would imagine the more often you get exposed and the greater the amount of virus you are exposed to the more likely you are to get it.

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User721 · 03/05/2020 22:52

I thought it was true and that was the reason so many doctors and nurses were dying because they had a much higher viral load that the average person.

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dementedpixie · 03/05/2020 22:53
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Thingsthatgo · 03/05/2020 23:04

Dementedpixie thank you! That’s perfect, thanks for your help.

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