How much does COVID-19 weigh?
The total mass of COVID-19 globally is currently between 100g and 10kg, according to an estimate recently published by Ron Milo of the Weizmann Institute of Science and his colleagues.
The article also details exactly how the team calculated the estimate.
Using the typical viral load of tissues and fluids in the body during the peak of an infection, the researchers estimated that an individual would carry between 1-100 billion viral particles, with a total mass of between 1 and 100 micrograms (between 0.0001 and 0.1 milligrams) during peak infection.
The team then calculated the global mass of the virus by multiplying the viral load by the number of cases globally.
The total number of viral particles globally was also calculated, with the researchers estimating that there have been between one hundred quadrillion and ten quintillion viral particles at any given time, assuming there has been between 1 million to 10 million people infected at close to peak infection over the course of the pandemic.
Why this matters
It was also noted that, for every person infected with COVID-19, the virus particles enter cells and replicate between three and seven times. Each of these replications can also introduce mutations, though not all of them will result in new variants of the virus.
This allows researchers to calculate an estimated rate of the formation of new genetic variants and form a better understanding of how many cells in different areas of the body can become infected.