Yes, viruses transmit between mammals including humans: ten investigations
And yes, people become infected when inoculated with the Covid virus, two challenge studies show (Updated 9/2/25)

Some “medical rebels” claim (a) viruses don’t exist; (b) viruses might exist but can’t transmit between hosts (e.g., from one animal to another); or (c) regardless whether viruses exist and can transmit, they can’t or don’t cause disease.
All three assertions are false, says the evidence.
On the first claim, many studies demonstrate viruses exist.
Now let’s look at 10 peer-reviewed studies showing viruses can spread among mammals, including humans:
1) Human rhinovirus — volunteer-to-volunteer spread (1966)
Summary: At the Salisbury Common Cold Unit, volunteers inoculated with rhinovirus were housed with susceptible subjects. Transmission occurred via both direct contact and aerosols, demonstrating natural spread in a controlled setting.
Citation: Gwaltney JM Jr, Hendley JO, Simon G, Jordan WS Jr. Rhinovirus infections in an industrial population. IV. Natural transmission of infection. Annals of Internal Medicine. 1966;64(1):28-34.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4285761/ • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-64-1-28
2) Human rhinovirus — hand-to-hand transmission (1978)
Summary: Experimentally infected “donors” transmitted rhinovirus to susceptible “recipients” via hand contact under controlled conditions.
Citation: Gwaltney JM Jr, Moskalski PB, Hendley JO. Hand-to-hand transmission of rhinovirus colds. Ann Intern Med.1978;88(4):463-467.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/205151/ • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-88-4-463
3) Human rhinovirus — contaminated surfaces (1982)
Summary: Healthy adults touched objects seeded by infected donors, then their own mucosa; 50–56% became infected. Disinfectant markedly reduced recoverable virus.
Citation: Gwaltney JM Jr, Hendley JO. Transmission of experimental rhinovirus infection by contaminated surfaces. Am J Epidemiol. 1982;116(5):828-833.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6293304/ • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113473 (PubMed)
4) Coxsackievirus A21 — human volunteer spread (1965)
Summary: At the Common Cold Unit, inoculated volunteers transmitted coxsackievirus A21 to susceptible volunteers under controlled housing conditions.
Citation: Buckland FE, Bynoe ML, Tyrrell DAJ. Experiments on the spread of colds. II. Studies in volunteers with coxsackievirus A21. J Hyg (Lond). 1965;63(3):327-343.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5318065/ • PDF (Cambridge): https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D670B9E2A0978FDA6150365761B27D1B/S0022172400045228a.pdf/experiments_on_the_spread_of_colds_ii_studies_in_volunteers_with_coxsackievirus_a21.pdf
5) Influenza A — human aerosol challenge (1966)
Summary: Healthy volunteers inhaled small-particle aerosols with quantified influenza A; typical illness ensued at very low doses — clear airborne transmission in humans.
Citation: Alford RH, Kasel JA, Gerone PJ, Knight V. Human influenza resulting from aerosol inhalation. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1966;122(3):800-804.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5918954/ • DOI page: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3181/00379727-122-31255 (Open PDF: https://www.ebm-journal.org/journals/experimental-biology-and-medicine/articles/10.3181/00379727-122-31255/pdf)
6) Influenza A — human transmission (2012)
Summary: In a quarantine facility, inoculated “donors” mingled with susceptible “recipients”; after adjusting for baseline immunity, the secondary attack rate was ~25%.
Citation: Killingley B, Enstone JE, Greatorex J, et al. Use of a human influenza challenge model to assess person-to-person transmission: proof-of-concept study. J Infect Dis. 2012;205(1):35-43.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22131338/ • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jir701
7) Influenza A — guinea pig model (2006)
Summary: Unadapted human influenza A transmitted between guinea pigs housed together, in adjacent cages, and nearly 1 m apart — establishing a robust mammalian model.
Citation: Lowen AC, Mubareka S, Tumpey TM, García-Sastre A, Palese P. The guinea pig as a transmission model for human influenza viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006;103(26):9988-9992.
PNAS (DOI): https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0604157103 (PDF: https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.0604157103) (PNAS)
8) SARS-CoV-2 — ferrets (2020)
Summary: Infected ferrets transmitted SARS-CoV-2 to naïve ferrets both by direct contact and through the air (adjacent cages).
Citation: Kim YI, Kim SG, Kim SM, et al. Infection and rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets. Cell Host Microbe. 2020;27(5):704-709.e2.
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32259477/ (Open PDF: https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/pdf/S1931-3128%2820%2930187-6.pdf) (PubMed, Cell)
9) SARS-CoV-2 — ferrets, independent group (2020)
Summary: Independent replication showing efficient contact and airborne transmission between ferrets.
Citation: Richard M, Kok A, de Meulder D, et al. SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted via contact and via the air between ferrets.Nat Commun. 2020;11:3496.
Article (open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17367-2 • PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32641684/
10) SARS-CoV-2 — golden Syrian hamsters (2020)
Summary: Infected hamsters efficiently transmitted virus to naïve cage mates; recipients lost weight and seroconverted — establishing a strong small-mammal model.
Citation: Sia SF, Yan LM, Chin AWH, et al. Pathogenesis and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in golden hamsters. Nature.2020;583:834-838.
Article (open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2342-5 • PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32408338/ (PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7394720/)
Covid virus challenges
Researchers also performed two human SARS-CoV-2 virus challenge studies, where volunteers snorted the virus up their nose (self-inoculation) to see if they became infected.
It turns out they did get infected:
1. Safety, tolerability, and viral kinetics (2022)
Summary: This was the first SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study. Healthy, young, seronegative adults were intranasally inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 under controlled quarantine. The study established viral kinetics, safety, and infectivity. It did not include exposing uninfected volunteers to inoculated ones.
Citation: Killingley B, Mann AJ, Kalinova M, et al. Safety, tolerability and viral kinetics during SARS-CoV-2 human challenge in young adults. Nature Medicine. 2022;28:1031-1041.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01780-9
Publisher link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01780-9
2. Local and systemic immune responses (2024)
Summary: This follow-up study profiled immune and epithelial cell responses after controlled intranasal inoculation of healthy, seronegative young adults. It provided detailed cellular and molecular insights, again without person-to-person exposure.
Citation: Lindeboom RGH, Worlock KB, Dratva LM, et al. Human SARS-CoV-2 challenge uncovers local and systemic response dynamics. Nature. 2024;630:86-94.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07575-x
Publisher link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07575-x
Why are there no volunteer-to-volunteer Covid transmission studies?
It’s mainly an ethics issue:
Ethical barriers: Unlike influenza or rhinovirus studies at the Common Cold Unit, SARS-CoV-2 presents risks of severe or long-term illness, making intentional volunteer-to-volunteer transmission unethical.
Controlled approach: All SARS-CoV-2 human challenge studies to date use direct intranasal inoculation under quarantine to control risks.
Evidence base: To study transmission, researchers rely instead on animal models (ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs) and observational human data (household studies, outbreak clusters) rather than deliberate person-to-person exposure in healthy volunteers.
Note: Just because viruses exist and can transmit between hosts does not mean government and media are telling you the truth about everything or that Covid is not a bioweapon operation.
Fifty telltale signs Covid is a bioweapon operation
Abundant circumstantial evidence points to the Covid pandemic being part of an ethnic bioweapon operation whose apparent aims are death, disability, submission to irrational orders, coerced vaccination, travel restrictions, supply chain disruptions, asset stripping, and vaccine passports using social credit scores to control and harm select persons and …
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These “studies” fail to show isolation of the virus in the true sense of the word. They just start with a so called Covid patient. They also don’t prove there was infection transfer by isolating the supposed virus that made the other ferrets sick.
With remarkable predictability the 'sideshow bobs' of the flat earth/no virus circus will perform their duty ... of misdirecting attention from the real heart of the matter. Whether you call it 'virus,' 'pop up,' or 'the gift that keeps on shiving' the 'thing' being 'transmitted between species is a lab created 'designer disease' - the motives for which are the only item worth discussing.
And the last thing most folks get around to. Substack has become the very home of the 'false trail limited hangout' - by which everybody is granted a 'safe space' in which to rant about their favorite 'bad guys/grrls' and good guys/grrls.
USA did it! No - China did! Perfect recipe by which Ness Zion and it's minions get away with...
murder. No Agatha Christie's are needed to complete the case. Just strip the hand waving puppets of the no-virus demimonde down to their sponsors .... Shillman Foundation and the 'billionaire philanthropists of the Lucky Larry Ellison kind...
and you get the same ol same ol. Anyone looking to move behind the funhouse should look to Jim Haslam's Reverse Engineering https://jimhaslam.substack.com/... for a refreshing dose of biology mixed with detective skills. Though a bit weak on the political angle... his acute insights into the world of scheming scientist and the state entities which fund them is a refreshing break from the endless shuffle of screaming meanies who populate the virus/no virus underworld.