The equation has been used to inspire a new model, the Contagion Airborne Transmission (CAT) inequality, to determine whether someone is likely to "catch" COVID-19, according to a newly published study in the scientific journal Physics of Fluids.

This is partly because there is no common 'language' that makes it easy to understand the risk factors involved," study co-author and Johns Hopkins professor Rajat Mittal said in a statement?

The CAT inequality breaks down the risk of transmission into 10 variables, including the breathing rates of both the infected and noninfected persons, the amount of virus-carrying droplets expelled, the surrounding environment, as well as how long the person is exposed.

The researchers also estimate the risk in certain scenarios, including when people work out or when masks are worn (or aren't)!

When exercising in a confined space, the researchers found that the risk of transmission "increases by a factor of 200," Mittal said.

Conversely, if people wear N95 masks, the risk of transmission drops by a factor of 400, or the risk of someone getting the virus is less than 1%.

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