The Continuing Puzzle of Defining Duration of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infectivity.

While aerosolization enhances transmission risk [[3]], viral load at the time of exposure is also a key determinant of respiratory virus transmission potential [[4]]. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; transmission EN SARS-CoV-2 transmission 1339 1342 4 06/19/23 20230615 NES 230615 B (See the Brief Report by Deyoe et al on pages 1343-47.) In nonhuman primate models of SARS and SARS-CoV-2, aerosolized viral load (measured by viral culture) predicts transmission likelihood [[24]], which is compatible with multiple other viruses studied in animal challenge systems. Perhaps due to the higher per viral particle infectivity of Omicron, the SARS-CoV-2 incubation period and serial interval shortened during the last year [[14]] while time to peak viral load varied based on immune status [[16]], which suggests shorter median, but possibly more variable generation times. [Extracted from the article]