The Sneeze Explosion
When you sneeze, air comes out of your nose and mouth at up to 100 miles per hour! That is faster than a car on a highway! And carried in that air are thousands of tiny droplets filled with germs.
A single sneeze can launch up to 40,000 droplets into the air! These droplets can travel up to 6 feet (about as far as two kids lying end to end). The germs in those droplets can float in the air for minutes and land on surfaces where they survive for hours.
Coughing is similar but not quite as explosive. A cough sends droplets about 3 feet. But if you are standing close to someone, that is close enough!
This is why covering your coughs and sneezes is SO important. Without a cover, you are spraying germs everywhere — on people near you, on desks, on food, on doorknobs. With a cover, you trap most of those germs and keep them from spreading.