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As predicted by droplet theory, they found that speaking dispersed the bacterium 1 to 4 ft.

But they found they hadn't placed the plates far enough to account for coughing. I assume they stopped at 10 ft because they ran out of room, because they certainly hadn't run out of reach of B. prodigiosus expelled when the researchers coughed.

It is worth noting that bacteria are very many times the size of viruses. This experiment was conducted with an organism that is vastly heavier than any virus, whether influenza, coronavirus, or any other.

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