Question about viral load

[Coolieloach]

Sorry if this is a daft question, but presumably viral load is how much someone has been exposed to the virus - does or can this effect how ill someone can become?
So for example if someone caught the virus by maybe touching something an infected person had touched and therefore had a tiny amount of virus in their system, compared to if the same person had an infected person sneeze in their face for example and therefore exposed to a much heavier viral load.
Or is it a case of once you’re infected it’s entirely down to how your body fights this?

That's infectous dose you're talking about. From what I've read the higher the infectious dose the worse the case of covid could be.

Viral load is how much virus you produce and therefore shed. If you get a high infectious dose then you could then have a higher viral load and be more ill.

www.theweek.co.uk/107996/how-much-coronavirus-does-it-take-to-make-us-ill

It's a bit of both but higher infectious doses are positively associated with more severe illness.

I think it correlates which is why healthcare staff at the beginning of this pandemic suffered a great deal with some unfortunately losing their lives.

Mask wearing will decrease viral load.

Ok thank you, that all makes sense