Don’t look up: ‘Astonishing number’ of viruses float down on us from the sky

VANCOUVER — This study will make you think twice about stepping outside for a breath of fresh air. A team of scientists from around the world confirmed millions of viruses rising into the atmosphere, traveling — sometimes for thousands of miles — and falling back down to the surface.

The study, carried out by researchers from the U.S., Canada, and Spain, is the first of its kind to confirm viruses are being swept up into the free troposphere — the layer of atmosphere between the area where Earth’s weather systems develop — and below the stratosphere, where airplanes fly.

The numbers are “astonishing” the researchers say; but remember, a virus is a tiny particle, little more than a strand of DNA and a mechanism for attaching to organic matter. Scientists aren’t suggesting the slightest bit that we should all return to spending our lives in lockdown again. Countless studies continue to point to the great health benefits from spending more time outdoors.

“Every day, more than 800 million viruses are deposited per square meter above the planetary boundary layer — that’s 25 viruses for each person in Canada,” says University of British Columbia virologist Curtis Suttle, lead author of the study, in a media release.

Scientists have been finding genetically similar viruses in disparate parts of the planet.

“Roughly 20 years ago we began finding genetically similar viruses occurring in very different environments around the globe,” says Suttle. “This preponderance of long-residence viruses travelling the atmosphere likely explains why—it’s quite conceivable to have a virus swept up into the atmosphere on one continent and deposited on another.”

Suttle and his team found that viruses and bacteria are often swept up into the atmosphere by attaching themselves to particles in soil dust and sea spray. The researchers used platforms in Spain’s Sierra Nevada Mountains to detect how many viruses and bacteria were settling there every day. They found billions of viruses and tens of millions of bacteria being deposited there per square meter every day.

“Bacteria and viruses are typically deposited back to Earth via rain events and Saharan dust intrusions. However, the rain was less efficient removing viruses from the atmosphere,” adds study author Isabel Reche, a microbial ecologist from the University of Granada.

The full study is published in International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal.

This article was first published on February 8, 2018

Comments

  1. UV light kills bacteria and viruses. These may be falling from the sky, but this is not “natural”. Rewriting science now, because rewriting history just isn’t enough anymore.

    1. the tin foil hat is your first line of defense… highly under rated in its effectiveness and stylistic qualities

      1. i said it was the first line of defense… a couple of lead ingots shoved up your backside should minimize neutrino’s into the colon. good luck!

      2. i think you’d benefit from a tin foil tampon for your vagina… wear it all month, not just when you’re bleeding!

  2. More disinformation from the dishonest press. Stop illegal immigration and much illness will be prevented.

      1. Travel along the Rio Grand Valley and listen to the people that try to live there. You will find diseases coming across the border that the US has no experience in treating.

      2. i’m a UTEP grad and dated a beautiful mexican girl for a couple years… roseanne pardo. ** heavy sigh **

  3. Don’t worry …. after an hour at those altitudes UV radiation kills them. And also remember that not all viruses and bacteria are pathogenic. You would not be able to live without the critters living in your gut.

  4. I remember getting really sick with a high fever in Perth just after a wind brought dust from the arid lands to the East. Guess my body can’t take airborne wallaby poop.

  5. Nano particles consisting of heavy metals like barrium and aluminium from aviation fuel additives is a much greater health concern. Is also why airplane contrails persist and do not evaporate thus severely altering our skies and climate.

      1. Yes, I know. But I am not convincing the already convinced in an intelectual ghetto, rather I am trying to convince the unknowing without scareing him off. Dont know if you get my drift.

  6. I think you’ll find the part of the atmosphere in question is the “troposphere,” not the “toposphere.”

  7. Coal ash is used in the aerosol injections. Weather manipulation has been going on for decades. Al though the level of weather control now is extreme. Go to climateviewer.com and learn about the junk in our skies….

  8. Medical companies use planes to spread viruses in the sky, then people get sick and medical companies profit. 😛

  9. “This study will make you think twice about stepping outside for a breath of fresh air.”
    SoyBoys find a major excuse to never leave mommy and daddies basement and continue their life of leeching.

    1. Baloney!
      My Mom told me herself that my father is Full of it..!
      She reminded him that John Boy lived on the family farm until his daddy died and he went into pot production and made his fortune.. I’m 32 and have many more years ahead of me here in Hollywood taking care of Mother and keeping daddy away from her. Plus I’m dabbling in pot growing myself.

  10. Fear mongering load of BS. Bombarded by UV rays in the upper atmosphere these viruses and bacteria are all DEAD. This is just a click bait load for the paranoid, and the study no doubt was another government funded boondoggle.

  11. So what? Like this hasn’t been going on since the beginning of time! You people are gonna melt the Snowflakes into weeping bags of mud:-)

    1. i just frantically brush myself off with my hands every five minutes or so… just to get them off of me. what are you people looking at? STOP LOOKING AT ME ! ! !


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