[Correspondence] Rethinking airborne transmission risk of monkeypox virus: a methodological perspective on quantitative PCR threshold collapse in environmental air sampling

Abstract

The potential for airborne transmission of the monkeypox virus remains intensely debated. Although computational fluid dynamics models suggest that the aerosol transmission of the monkeypox virus is highly inefficient compared with that of SARS-CoV-21 and that epidemiological evidence supports close contact as the primary route of transmission,2 environmental surveillance studies have reported alarmingly high rates of airborne monkeypox virus DNA.3–5 However, a systematic methodological review of these datasets reveals a crucial paradox that might severely overestimate the true airborne transmission risk.