As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, it has become clear that people need to understand basic facts about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to make informed health care and public policy decisions. Two basic virological concepts have gotten a lot of attention recently — the “infectious dose” and the “viral load” of SARS-CoV-2.
As influenza virologists, these are concepts that we often think about when studying respiratory virus infections and transmission.
