How Far Does a Cough or a Sneeze Travel? Asking for a Friend

There are plenty of times when you might wonder: How far does a cough or a sneeze travel? During a global pandemic involving a respiratory illness is certainly one of them. Prior to the new coronavirus pretty much upending life as we know it, you might have simply given someone the side-eye if they coughed near you in the grocery store or on public transportation. And look, coughing in public without covering your mouth has always been a public health nuisance with the potential to cause harm. But now it can be a matter of life and death to a huge number of people—to the point that doing so intentionally might result in a felony charge.

And it makes sense to worry about other people coughing and sneezing in your general vicinity these days. COVID-19 spreads easily—and a big part of that spread is through respiratory droplets, like from a cough or a sneeze. What that means is that if someone coughs, sneezes, or even talks, small droplets can expel from their mouth. You can get sick if those droplets land in your mouth or nose and then you inhale them into your lungs, according to the CDC. The CDC recommends that you stay at least six feet away from people when you’re out in public, to minimize your risk of this type of transmission. But is six feet actually sufficient? If someone is coughing or sneezing, is it possible that they’re expelling those droplets farther than just six feet?

Which brings us back to the original question: How far does a cough or a sneeze travel?

Here, doctors explain what you should know about how far germs spread in general when people sneeze and cough, how to keep yourself as healthy as possible, and how to protect others when you’re the sick one (whether you have COVID-19 or otherwise).

Infectious diseases have a few modes of transmission.

One of these is large-droplet transmission, Alexander L. Greninger M.D., assistant director of the University of Washington Medicine Clinical Virology Laboratory, tells SELF. This refers to the droplets sick people expel when they cough, sneeze, or talk. If someone else inhales those secretions, they can get sick too. Illnesses like the flu, the common cold, and pertussis (whooping cough) are thought to mainly spread this way. Same goes for COVID-19.

Then there are infections that fall into the airborne-transmission category, like measles, tuberculosis, and chickenpox. Unlike large droplets, which need to quickly come into contact with someone’s mucous membranes in order to cause an infection, airborne transmission allows potential pathogens to remain suspended in the air for some time after someone coughs, sneezes, or talks. (Remember, not all germs are actual pathogens that can make you ill.) Then someone else can breathe in those particles and get sick.

Some illnesses can infect people via both forms of transmission. For instance, the flu mainly spreads through large droplets, but the CDC notes that it can be airborne as well. And there’s some preliminary research that suggests that COVID-19 has the potential to hang out in the air for a few hours as well, although more research is needed.