Will the risk of coronavirus increase in children? 3:55
(CNN) - The coronavirus can float in air droplets and is likely to be transmitted that way, a group of experts plans to say in a letter Monday.
They will publish an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health agencies, asking them to be more direct in explaining how the virus can be transmitted in the air.
It's not a secret, but the agencies appear to be afraid to talk about the nature of the virus in the air, said Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland who studies how viruses are transmitted.
"I suppose we hope the WHO comes along and is more willing to recognize the important functions of aerosols, whether they want to call it air transmission or not," Milton, one of the letter's two lead authors, told CNN.
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Milton studies the transmission of the virus in the air. The other lead author, Lidia Morawska, is a professor of environmental engineering and an expert in aerosol science at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Milton says they and a group of other similar experts have been discussing possible airborne coronavirus transmission since February.
The letter, signed by 239 scientists from around the world, will be published this Monday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
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