Summaries by British experts reveal that a few mouthfuls of virus particles are driving the global coronavirus pandemic.
All the COVID virus currently circulating in the world can easily fit in a single can of cola, according to a calculation by a British mathematician whose sum exposes how much destruction is caused by minuscule viral particles.
Using the global rate of new infections with the pandemic disease, coupled with the estimate of the viral load, maths expert Kit Yates of Bath University calculated there are nearly two quintillion – or two billion billion – particles of the new coronavirus, or SARS-CoV2, world at any time.
Yates explained the steps in his calculations in an article published on the news website The Conversation, saying he used the diameter of SARS-CoV-2 – averaging about 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter – and then determined the volume. has. of the spherical virus.
The total volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world can fit in a can of cola. Https://t.co/T6KbBrDi1z
Animation by @VickiGSP pic.twitter.com/ZQio5Colzq
– Kit Yates (@Kit_Yates_Maths) 10 February 2021
He said he even takes into account the excellent proteins of the coronavirus and the fact that the spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked together. It is still less than in a single cola of 330 milliliters (11.16 ounces).
“It’s surprising to think that all the problems, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that have resulted over the past year could only make up a few mouthfuls that would undoubtedly be the worst drink in history,” he said. Yates said in his article. .
More than 2.34 million people have died so far from COVID-19, and there have been nearly 107 million confirmed cases worldwide, according to information gathered by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.