That percentage would prove to be far lower than in the general population because the passengers tended to be older and more likely to become extremely ill. Later studies determined that most of the spread of the infection was through aerosol droplets that could float through the air—down hallways, lingering in bathrooms, drifting through the dining halls. The infection rate of the disease on the Diamond Princess was eventually put at 19.2 percent; on some vessels, it reached 60 percent.
