{"id":58937,"date":"2021-04-03T15:17:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T19:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=58937"},"modified":"2021-04-03T15:17:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T19:17:43","slug":"its-now-been-scientifically-confirmed-that-sunlight-kills-the-coronavirus-8-times-faster-than-undestood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=58937","title":{"rendered":"It’s now been scientifically confirmed that sunlight kills the coronavirus 8 times faster than undestood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunlight renders coronavirus inactive 8 TIMES faster than predicted, says new study<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Illustration: \u00a9 Ricardo Esquivel from Pexels<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

RT.com
\nResearchers have found that the coronavirus is inactivated by sunlight as much as eight times faster in experiments than predicted by current theoretical modelling, providing a glimmer of hope in turning the tide on the pandemic.<\/p>\n

UC Santa Barbara assistant professor of mechanical engineering Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz conducted an analysis of 2020 studies exploring the effects of different forms of UV radiation on the SARS-CoV-2 and found a significant discrepancy.<\/p>\n

As with all electromagnetic radiation, UV falls on a spectrum, with longer-wave UVA reacting differently with parts of DNA and RNA than other mid-range UVB waves contained in sunlight, which kill microbes and cause sunburn in humans.<\/p>\n

Short-wave UVC radiation has previously been shown to deactivate viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for Covid-19, but this section of the UV spectrum is deflected away by the Earth\u2019s ozone layer.<\/p>\n

A July 2020 experimental\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0tested the power of UV light on SARS-CoV-2, contained in simulated saliva, and found the virus was inactivated in under 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

However, a theory published a month later suggested sunlight could achieve the same effect, which didn\u2019t quite add up. This second study concluded that SARS-CoV-2 was three times more sensitive to UV radiation in sunlight than the influenza A virus.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of coronavirus particles were rendered inactive within 30 minutes of exposure to midday summer sunlight, whereas the virus could survive for days under winter sunlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experimentally observed inactivation in simulated saliva is over eight times faster than would have been expected from the theory,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Luzzatto-Feigiz and his team said. \u201cSo, scientists don\u2019t yet know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team suspects that, as the UVC doesn\u2019t reach the Earth, instead of directly attacking the RNA, the long-wave UVA in sunlight interacts with molecules in the virus\u2019 environment, such as saliva, which speeds up the inactivation, in a process witnessed previously in wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n

The findings suggest UVA emitters could be added to equipment such as air filtration systems to provide a cheap and energy-efficient means of reducing the spread of viral particles. Masks and social distancing would more than likely still be required, but such UV-based interventions could be of some benefit as nations struggle with recurring waves of the pandemic despite vaccination efforts.<\/p>\n

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\nhttps:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/519921-sunlight-renders-coronavirus-inactive\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunlight renders coronavirus inactive 8 TIMES faster than predicted, says new study<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}