Coronavirus: Video shows how cough on a plane spreads infection

A simulation appears to indicate that current social distancing guidelines may not be enough to keep joggers safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

The video, created by simulation technology company Ansys, shows that droplets cab spread more than six feet behind you while you are walking, running or cycling.

Because of this, running side-by-side with someone may actually be safer than running behind them so you don’t directly come into contact with any droplets, engineers say.  

‘If we see a whale or dolphin blow through their blowhole, we can see the water and jump out of way if we have to,’ Marc Horner, the principal engineer for healthcare at Ansys, told DailyMail.com

‘But if someone sneezes or coughs, it happens so quickly and the droplets are so small, [the simulation gets] that mental image in your mind of how far away you need to stand so gravity has time to pull the droplets down.’  

Federal health officials chose six feet as the guideline for social distancing because of the way that respiratory droplets travel.

When an infected person coughs or sneezes, droplets typically travel no more than six feet before gravity pulls them to the ground.

The video shows two scenarios: one in which two people are running side-by-side and another in which they are running one behind the other.

In the side-by-side scenario, when one person coughs or sneezes, the majority of the droplets travel behind the runners, not next to them.

This is what makes the scenario in which one person jogging six feet behind another person so unsafe, Horner explains.

‘If someone coughs, those droplets are suspended in the air and, if you are six feet behind, you are going to run right into them and it doesn’t give them enough time to fall to the ground,’ he said.

‘The droplets go straight out and go behind you so if you’re next to someone – ignoring wind conditions –  it won’t hit you.’ 

If you don’t feel safe enough running next to somebody else, run behind them in staggered formation, meaning not directly behind them.

Lorner says this will help prevent cough or sneeze droplets from landing directly on you.