Scientists have accidentally discovered that men spread COVID-19 more than women and children.
The Colorado-based study, CBS News reported, was intended to look into COVID transmission at performing arts events. But when measuring the number of aerosols emitted by its 75 participants, researchers found something surprising: the adult male subjects spewed way more particles than adult women or children.
And the explanation is likely simple. Adult men just tend to have larger lungs than women or children.
"Adults tend to emit more particles than children," John Volckens, a mechanical engineering professor at Colorado State University, told CBS. "The reason men tend to emit more particles is because we have bigger lungs."
He also added that people speaking or singing at higher volumes will spread more aerosols because the energy they exert to project their voices "translates to more particles coming out of your body." In other words, loud guys are gonna be the ones spreading the most COVID. Quiet down, lads!
Overall, though, the takeaway was clear. The enclosed spaces where people are talking, singing, or shouting loudly are the sites of the highest rates of COVID transmission.
The CSU researchers also found that in particular, singing loudly does — as the cases of choir superspreader events seemed to suggest — emit more aerosol particles than just talking loudly.
Using lots of cool instruments in an "aerosol testing chamber," researchers brought in singers, brass instrument players, and actors to measure aerosol emission. The next phase of the study will focus on which instruments are more likely to spread COVID-19 than others, researchers told CBS.
Lest we forget the difficult path we've trod so far, let us have a moment of (ironic) silence for the months that global and national health authorities spent ignoring the overwhelming research showing that COVID-19 is transmitted via aerosol droplets that float in the air, and especially so in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces.
Without that knowledge, we could never have gotten this incredible burn on the least-fair sex.
READ MORE: Study shows men spread COVID particles more than other populations [CBS News]
More on men and COVID: Catching Coronavirus Makes it Harder for Men to Have Kids
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