Shockingly, no one was infected. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur objective in this study wasn\u2019t to prevent the flu,\u201d says infectious disease aerobiology expert Donald Milton, MD<\/a>, study co-author and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health\u2019s Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health. \u201cWe were trying to understand how transmission happens so that we could design better ways to prevent it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Milton points out that about eight percent<\/a> of people get the flu during a normal respiratory virus season, making it a fairly infectious virus. <\/p>\n So\u2026why didn\u2019t healthy people get the flu, even when they were in the same room as those who were infected? The findings offer some key takeaways for preventing the flu, whether someone in your house has the virus or you just want to play it safe. <\/p>\n Meet the experts: Amesh A. Adalja, MD<\/a>, is an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Thomas Russo, MD,<\/a> is a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York. Infectious disease aerobiology expert Donald Milton, MD<\/a>, is the study co-author and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health\u2019s Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health.<\/p>\n What did the study find?<\/p>\n For the PLOS Pathogens<\/a> study, researchers had five people infected with the flu mingle with 11 people who didn\u2019t have the virus in a hotel room with limited ventilation, but a high air recirculation rate. <\/p>\n The study participants lived on an isolated hotel floor for two weeks and did daily routines that were designed to mimic real-life social interactions, like casual conversations, yoga, stretching, and dancing. The people who were infected touched things like a pen, tablet, and microphone, which were then passed around the group.<\/p>\n During this time, the researchers tracked the participants\u2019 symptoms and collected daily data, like nasal swabs, saliva, and blood samples. They also measured levels of the virus in the air and in the breath of the participants. <\/p>\n Ultimately, none of the healthy participants got sick. <\/p>\n Why didn\u2019t everyone get infected?<\/p>\n There are likely a few reasons for this. \u201cMost people would find it shocking to realize that every time scientists have tried to put people in a room to see if infected people would infect uninfected people with the flu, it hasn\u2019t worked,\u201d Dr. Milton says. \u201cIt\u2019s strange.\u201d <\/p>\n His team guessed that this was because previous studies used lab viruses that circulated years ago (and that people had built up an immunity to), which is why they decided to use people who were naturally infected with current strains of the virus. <\/p>\n But Dr. Milton thinks one reason why the healthy participants didn\u2019t get sick is that they were middle-aged adults who have had years of exposure to the flu. As a result, they may have more of a natural immunity than younger people, he says. <\/p>\n The study was also done during a milder flu year (2023-2024), aka not this year<\/a>, Dr. Milton points out. While many of the study participants had high levels of the influenza virus in their nose, they didn\u2019t cough. \u201cIn previous years, we saw that people who don\u2019t cough don\u2019t shed virus much,\u201d he says. \u201cFlu cases where people are coughing are the most contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Milton says the ventilation was \u201cpurposefully pretty bad,\u201d with researchers sealing up doors and doing what they could to limit ventilation. But the air was also moving around the room a lot. \u201cWe wanted to have a well-mixed environment, thinking that would get everyone exposed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt turned out that it worked the other way around. There was enough air in the room that when you had people who weren\u2019t coughing much, everybody got exposed to a tiny amount of virus, which wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Related StoriesWhat\u2019s the takeaway for staying well?<\/p>\n Doctors say there are a few things you can do with this information, whether you\u2019re out in public or someone in your home is sick. Limiting coughing\u2014by using cough suppressants or having the person who is sick wear a mask around others\u2014can be helpful, according to Amesh A. Adalja, MD<\/a>, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. <\/p>\n \u201cCough is a major mechanism by which viral particles spread through the air,\u201d he explains. \u201cDiminishing coughing, diminishes that opportunity for respiratory viruses to spread.\u201d<\/p>\n
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