San Francisco, CA – Scientists are now concerned that the coronavirus can travel through internet communications and infect people virtually as researchers at California Polytechnic Laboratories broke news that the virus can travel online after extensive testing showed computer screens were the most likely cause of infection in nearly half of a random assortment of positive coronavirus cases the research center studied.

Of course the bombshell news this week has been hinted at before, as with Susan From the Parish Council who first hinted on the potential danger of online virus transmission back in April 2020. However, no one has appeared to have taken this seemingly wild possibility seriously until this week, something that IIT researchers think has to do with something called “election induced mind sickness”

Although the science is not fully settled, it appears that online virus transmission is possible whenever live video feeds are shared, as with online video calls with about the same risk as standing within one foot of someone else’s face.

Online video calling services like Skype and Zoom are obviously now the front lines of this new coronavirus risk zone, and are scrambling to respond, with Zoom rolling out their solution today, virtual masks. 

“You see the way the virus transmission works is that a virus jumps out at you if you’re less than six feet away from another person,” Zoom Communications president Bar Zingxiong told IIT. “But it’s scared away if you’re wearing a mask and won’t come near you. That’s simply the SCIENCE. So we realized innovatively that a virtual mask works for this kind of virtual transmission even better than a regular mask. And therefore we’re launching ZOOM ONLINE Masks.”

Zoom Masks, a new virtual screen feature will simply superimpose an image of a mask over your face on your camera feed when you’re in the middle of a video call through Zoom’s communication service. “100% Science, 100% Proven, and soon 100% automatic, we’re proving our commitment to your safety,” Bar Zingxiong said of the announcement. Beginning October 24th, the feature will be enabled by default and allows users a choice of several virtual masks they can virtually wear, the option of wearing several masks at a time and even a feature in beta-testing that will edit the video feed to give you an appearance of being six feet or more from the camera.

“Be smart, choose Zoom,” Bar adds. “When you Zoom with Zoom you’re showing your commitment to masks, social distancing and all these incredible new features of the 2020 world. Remember we’re all in this together!”

Bill Gates is spending $20 billion dollars on research as to whether virtual masks are a solution for computer viruses as well on the “obviously scientific” claim that computer viruses will be frightened away by masks on the same principle.