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Abstract doesn’t say if mice wore the mask or were exposed to air filtered by this mask

Lethal infectivity of influenza viruses (CA/09 H1N1) was examined in 8 week old female inbred BALB/c mice (Nara Biotech; Seoul, Korea) by using the intranasal route. For bare and salt-coated filters, 12 mice per group were infected with individual penetration dosage of influenza virus through each filter

tl;dr - they used samples of virus taken from filters and directly infected mice with those samples. Bare filters - all mice dead. Salted filters - all mice a little sick for a week and then back to normal.

The paper talks about the microdroplets getting dehydrated (and I assume trapped) by the salt. Why do they get sick at all? Is it because the virus loading is drastically lower and their immune system can stay ahead of it's replication curve?

What a fantastic time to be alive.

They speculate that viruses shape is altered by recrystallization of salt and they are damaged/uneffective, but still have some small virulency which is enough to trigger immune system.

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