Does viral inoculum play a role in disease severity in COVID‐19?

Abstract

Recently, since the optimization of COVID-19 control policies in China, a higher proportion of COVID-19 patients who presented with more severe symptoms has been observed in our tertiary care academic hospital in a provincial capital city in China. While drastically increased viral load in the environment due to significantly higher number of patients overall was speculated to cause possible higher inoculum dose, this again raises the question of whether the inoculum dose may be a contributing factor to disease severityPrevious studies suggest a possible link between viral inoculum dose and the severity of COVID-19, although further research is needed to confirm these findings and to understand the mechanisms by which a higher inoculum viral load may lead to more severe disease. In the meanwhile, nonpharmaceutical preventive measures, such as mask-wearing, social distancing, handwashing, and improved ventilation, are still critical to not only reduce transmission but also to possibly decrease the disease severity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.