Name: 【新冠肺炎】新冠病毒疫情肆虐期間不要小看一個噴嚏！ (How Contagious Is A Single Sneeze?)
Uploaded: 2020-02-08T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 5 s

Do you know how far your germs can travel?

你知道你噴嚏裡的細菌的傳播距離嗎？

Normally you hold about half a liter of fluid in your lungs, so when you sneeze, you're able to spray as much as a water bottle's worth of mucus into the air around you.

一般來說我們的肺部裡裝有 500 毫升的液體，所以當你打噴嚏的時會把那些黏液噴灑到你四周的空氣中。

It shoots out of your mouth in the form of moist, germ-infested clouds traveling up to 35 meters per second.

從你嘴巴噴出帶有細菌且濕潤的雲狀物會以每秒 35 米的速度傳播。

That's fast enough to give you a speeding ticket on the highway.

這個噴射速度足以讓你收到一張超速罰單。

Once that cloud hits the air, it expands, breaking up into snotty strings, then a series of different-sized droplets all trapped in a turbulent gas cloud.

一旦那團雲狀物接觸到空氣就會膨脹並分裂成幾行鼻涕，接著會有大小不一的水滴困在一團湍流的氣體雲中。

One brave group at MIT discovered that the biggest droplets can travel up to two meters, about the distance between your desk and two desks away.

有一群來自麻省理工學院的研究人員發現，最大的水滴可以穿越至兩米，大概是兩張桌子的距離。

But most other droplets, those travel much farther, up to eight meters.

而其他的可以穿至更遠，大概是八米。

Not only that, the germ-infested gas cloud is less dense than the air around it, so it rises upwards right to where ventilation systems and other people's unsuspecting noses and mouths await.

不僅如此，帶有細菌氣團的密度比四周的空氣小，因此它會往上升至通風系統和其他防備不及的人的口鼻腔裡。

Even though these are relatively smaller droplets, they're probably still teeming with harmful pathogens like the flu virus.

雖然那只是小水滴，不過依然是充滿著有毒的病原體，像流感病毒般。

Even worse, depending on the ventilation, they can spread through a room in just a few seconds and remain suspended for up to 10 minutes.

不過這要視抽風系統的情況而異，情況更糟的話可以在幾秒內傳播至整個房間並停留至 10 分鐘。

Now, if you happen to notice someone around you sneeze or cough, you can hold your breath as you move out of range.

如果你現在發現你身旁的人都開始打噴嚏或咳嗽，你可以憋著氣離開他的身旁。

But during the flu season, that might not even be enough, because there are danger zones everywhere; especially on surfaces like desks, doorknobs, and steel handrails.

可是在流感季節，這個做法可能的作用不大。因為尤其是桌子、門把和手把的表面等都會是高危險區域。

It turns out the flu virus has been found to survive for 24 hours on a steel surface, and if you touch that surface and don't wash your hands before eating, you may have just gotten infected.

有研究發現流感病毒在鋼質上可以存活 24 小時，如果你摸過這些東西的表面後沒有先洗手才進食的話，你很有可能會受到感染。

So, let's say you go into work sick with the flu one day and you start to sneeze.

舉例來說你帶流感病毒上班，然後你開始打噴嚏。

Now, according to one study, you'll probably only infect one to two other people.

根據一項研究指示，這樣一個噴嚏會傳染感給一或兩個人。

You're clearly showing symptoms of the flu.

However, it's gonna take a few days for symptoms to show up in other people you've infected, so those poor souls unknowingly also come into work sick over the next few days, and they will potentially infect one to two more people.

不過被你傳染到的人，他們的徵兆要幾天後才會顯露。那幾位不知已經被傳染可仍然在上班的可憐人，在這幾天他們有可能會再多傳染給一或兩個人。

In an office of 100 desks, this could mean 10 or 15 sick people by the end of two weeks.

兩個星期後，這 100 人的辦公室裡就出現 10 或 15 位病人。

And all of it started with just one sick person.

而這一切的源頭都是來自一位病人。

All thanks to the germ-laden cloud you so generously shared.

So, the next time you're not feeling great and you're sneezing up a storm, just think about your poor coworkers, and take a sick day for yourself and for them.

因此下次你們感到身體不適、不斷地打噴嚏的時候，請替你身旁可憐的同事們著想，為了自己和他們，就請個病假吧！