Figure 4.

Tracking virions from one infected cell over 36 h after shedding begins. From the same simulations in Fig. 3, plots of the rise over time in total number of infectious virions shed (blue), total number of virions exiting the region/generation (yellow), and total number of free virions at any moment inside the region/generation (red). The time for the mucus layer to advect the full length of a given generation, column 5 of Table 1, is labeled “escalator clear time” (solid vertical gray line). This timescale for trapped virions to clear the generation is extremely short and not visible on this scale in the top panels while being visible in the bottom panels. The time for the first virion to exit the region/generation (green dotted line) is short yet visible in the top panels, whereas no virions exit generations 10 and 15 within 36 h.