The ongoing pandemic is just getting a level higher every single time and never does it ever fail to amaze all of us. The lockdown and being stuck at homes 24/7 and even if you go out you need to have these annoying masks which make us feel even hotter and at times even hurt the back of our years and how can I forget that we need to definitely have sanitizers so that we can kill the virus. On top of that, we wash our hands every single moment of our lives and the fact that we cannot meet any of our friends, colleagues, family relatives and the worst part of all is doing work and school and college through the virtual mode by sitting in front of the screen and looking at it non-stop. This all wasn’t enough that now the recent news says that tree pollen may help airborne Covid particles to spread further and faster, rendering the two-meter rule less effective even in outdoor settings and this all is according to what the scientists have said.
See I told you my dear readers that this coronavirus is just getting a level higher as if we are in a video game but the only twisted part is that the developer of the game is a coronavirus which apparently is waiting for us to surpass all the older levels and keeps unlocking new and difficult levels were we scared to the bone and also leaves us all in astonishment as if the ground has slipped from beneath of our legs.
According to the researchers, pollen exposure can also weaken the immune system against certain viruses, and the same study’s authors say that pollen grains can also act as vectors for pathogens, carrying potentially hundreds of virus particles at a time. The researchers deployed computational modeling of fluid dynamics to mimic the pollen movement from a willow tree, which apparently is a classic example of a pollen emitter. The researchers have set to work by creating all the pollen-producing parts of their computational willow tree and then they simulate outdoor gatherings of roughly 10 or 100 people, some of them shedding COVID-19 particles, and then subjected the people to 10,000 pollen grains. So as a result the researchers saw that when tuning the model to the perfect temperature, wind speed, and humidity of a typical spring day in the United States the pollen passed through the crowd in less than one minute, which means that it could significantly affect the virus load carried along and increase the risk of infection.
This was known to us because of Talib Dbouk and Dmitris Drikakis of the University of Nicosia Cyprus who had decided to investigate the possible link between the COVID-19 infection rates and pollen concentrations after noticing a correlation between COVID-19 infection rates and pollen concentrations in the US National Allergy Map. That Dmitris Drikakis said that “To our knowledge, this is the first time we show through modeling and simulation how airborne pollen micrograins are transported in a light breeze, contributing to airborne virus transmission in crowds outdoors”.
Thus to conclude based on the modeling and reports and taking everything in mind the researchers said the 6-foot distance often cited for COVID-19 recommendations might not be adequate for those at risk for the disease in crowded areas with high pollen concentrations. Pollen could carry the COVID-19 virus further, faster, say researchers.
