COVID-19

Post Reply New Topic

Can you still get the virus by touching something that other people touch? I think I know the answer, but I want to 1000% sure. The media can say stuff to really scare people.

It's difficult too be entirely certain as this is still very new (in research time). Scientific research has shown that in ideal conditions the virus can live on surfaces for up to 3 days (this applies to non-porous materials like steel, copper, some plastics, etc). What is less clear is how easily humans contact the virus from these surfaces. Until we know for sure, it's wise to assume all surfaces are contaminated upon contact and to wipe them down, or let them go untouched for several days.

There's nothing new about it. People were warned for years and years about catching and spreading colds and flu that way.

Even the so-called experts did a 180 with things they have insisted from the beginning. From the begging everybody pushed that you needed to stay 6 feet apart & cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, & to wash your hands before touching your face. Now the same "experts" suddenly started saying that the virus is airborne & people need to stay a lot further than 6 feet apart. If they were so wrong in the begging, How the hell can we know that they are not wrong again I can NOT trust flip-floppers. This Covid virus has often been compared to other viruses like colds & flues so maybe we should start treating Covid like the cold & flu. There is no way anybody can be 100% guaranteed they will never catch a cold or the flu during their life unless they live like Bubble Boy. Most people do NOT spend their whole winters confined to their houses out of fear of catching the cold or flu. People live their lives & if they get sick then they deal with it & go on with their lives. There is no way anybody today be be 100% guaranteed they will never catch Covid. We can not just get rid of Covid now that it's out there. We should just accept that we may catch it & we should take reasonable precautions & go on with our lives instead of continuing to let the media, politicians, & big businesses fuel mass hysteria. Widespread panic is exactly what they want in order to get more money & stay in power.

^ Science takes time. There are no experts on Covid-19 because it's a new type of coronavirus. The guidelines have been unclear and may seem to change because the research is just at the beginning stages. There have also been mixed messages because original guidelines get distorted over time by non-scientist reporters. For instance, the 6-feet distance was initially stated as an estimated bare minimum.

I believe there are plenty of other threads on this subject where you can voice your opinions on this virus. OP was requesting information, nothing more.

As far as touching things like public doorknobs and door handles and railings/banisters etc, it's best to avoid touching your face or eat finger foods until you have either washed your hands or used sanitizer, throughout cold and flu season.

Apparently we're in the 2nd wave now and the cases are increasing again just like I feared they would.

I'm scared that the anti maskers were right all along and masks and even hand washing does nothing to prevent the virus. But when I go out today with my mother I'm going to wear both a mask and a face shield.

I'm so disgusted with the h*m*n race that I've decided to censor the word h*m*n whenever I use it. I've always hated the word anyway. It's always felt weird to use it, and especially to call myself one.

The New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet have determined:

The SARS-CoV-2 virus can live on:
- plastic (food packaging, credit cards, toys, light switches, ATM buttons, computer keyboards, etc.) for up to 3-7 days, depending on the porosity of the plastic
- stainless steel (door handles, appliances, keys, utensils, etc.) for up to 3-7 days
- copper (coins, jewelry, wires, etc.) for up to 4 hours
- paper (stationery, magazines, newspapers, tissues, paper towels, etc.) for up to 3 hours
- paper money (which is actually cloth for USD) for up to 4 days
- glass (windows, drinkware, mirrors, screens, etc.) for up to 4 days
- cardboard (food packaging, boxes, etc.) for up to 24 hours
- wood (furniture, etc.) for up to 2 days
- cloth for up to 2 days

They found that the virus survives poorly on food, but you should wash produce and your hands after handling/before eating. It has not been found in drinking water in the United States, which is treated.

The CDC also has this to say:

COVID most commonly spreads through close human-human contact through the expulsion of respiratory droplets from talking, laughing, singing, coughing, sneezing, etc.
— it can also be spread through airborne transmission, i.e. those same respiratory droplets that linger in the air and are inhaled by others nearby
— — this is why masks HELP*
To a (much) lesser degree (but not impossible), COVID can be spread through contact with contaminated surfaces IF a person who touches that surface then touches their face.

The virus can be killed/removed from hard surfaces with bleach, bleach solutions, 70% or higher alcohol solutions, and others, which the EPA has provided in a single database (https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registrat ... s-covid-19)

* Very, very few people claim masks are a surefire prevention to spreading COVID. Masks DO, however, capture the droplets, thereby REDUCING THE LIKELIHOOD of spreading the disease, especially when the people breathing and expelling are all wearing masks and staying at least 6 ft. apart.

*** A note about scientific “certainty,” to the extent any such thing exists:

Scientists do not operate in absolutes. The scientific process is testing a hypothesis, seeing if it’s possible, then testing it again and again, over and over, until enough iterations have been performed, enough variables accounted for, enough randomness inserted, and enough bias eliminated that within a reasonable margin of error that hypothesis cannot be disproved. It’s not glamorous or capricious. It’s deliberative, exhausting, painstaking work that is designed to be tested over and over by other people with other ideas for variables and biases to check against.

According to the scientific method, it is NOT POSSIBLE to definitively claim something is true or fact, because there cannot be a limit to how many variables and iterations can be tested. When something is considered a Theory, it means that as yet, no scientific testing has been able to disprove it. Theories are as close to “facts” or “rules” as scientists are willing to go. Because that is how science works. If something cannot be tested (eg something faith-based) then it is not something that scientists are going to consider.

Are all scientists perfect at this? Of course not. Is it possible to remove all bias? Never. Are there bad actors within the scientific community? Of course. But same goes for absolutely anything. Scientists are still human beings, subject to influence, error, arrogance, and groupthink. HOWEVER, once something gets to the level of publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, or willing to be endorsed as guidance by public health agencies, we can assume with a good amount of confidence that enough people have tested and examined the claims that it’s not a narrative that is only championed by one or a few misguided/ill-intentioned individuals.

Sources:
NEJM - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2004973
The Lancet - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanm ... 66-5247(20)30003-3/fulltext
CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... cov-2.html
EPA - https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registrat ... s-covid-19
Me - two decades of scientific study and research

^ I agree. Malavois thank you for expressing it so well.