Chance of contracting COVID-19 from surfaces nearly zero: CDC

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Daily News

You can stop scouring stores for disinfectant wipes. They won’t save you from COVID.

The chances of being infected with the novel coronavirus and getting COVID-19 via surfaces — that is, touching a surface with active virus on it, then touching your face — is only about one in 10,000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance issued Monday.

“It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low,” the CDC said, emphasizing the ease of transmission via airborne respiratory droplets.

Moreover, scrubbing with soap and water is sufficient in “most situations” on everyday household surfaces, due to the structure of the virus.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-covid-cdc-coronavirus-transmission-surfaces-extremely-low-20210406-pbtcautixbb4xiaxiwtfpnlxfe-story.html

[LizBeth]

1. First month of wiping everything down. Groceries, wine bottles, everything. What a pain that was.

Then I went to putting away then washing hand and staying away from the product a day, so could die off. Then just washed hands after putting away and not worrying about it. But what a mess at first.

[jimfields33]

4. I didn't do it and glad for it

My neighbors washed ever single item the brought from the grocery store. I’m way to lazy. It took her a long time.

[LizBeth]

8. Ya, I am way lazy too. The first groceries I had delivered I wiped down all. The next and next, not

as much just the stuff I was going to use immediately. I was also paying way more for delivery of groceries and stopped that a couple months in.

[jimfields33]

11. I have to admit I did do the whole instacart thing

In some ways it was fun. But weirdly I ended up buying more junk food then I would have had I just gone in. I dropped it as well.

[LizBeth]

13. Right. It was cool.

[herding cats]

5. I just said something similar.

It was such a nuisance! We sort of knew this already per previous studies, but it's nice for the CDC to catch-up and make it official.

[LizBeth]

9. +1

[mpcamb]

54. A positive from it was essentially reduced flu cases and flu deaths.

[NullTuples]

31. Better safe than sorry - what if it had turned out it was spread by surfaces?

[LizBeth]

33. As I said, did it for a month or so while following the info and we learned pretty quickly, probably

I imagine that if we were seeing confirmation there was an issue, I would have reacted differently.

[NullTuples]

41. Given the info we had to work with I think many of us did the best we could!

[herding cats]

2. Lysol and Clorox had a nice run, but alas it's over now.

Before we had good data we were being extremely careful. Remember cleaning groceries and take out containers when they came home?

I'm extremely happy those days are behind us!

[LizBeth]

3. I still laugh at the toilet paper people, asses. I wonder if they still have a garage full.

[jimfields33]

6. They'll get the last laugh when the price goes up and they still have a lot left.

[NullTuples]

42. Toilet Paper futures...the investment of the future

[jimfields33]

45. Sounds good. Ha.

[herding cats]

7. I dearly hope so!

I didn't do a TP stock up and was caught chasing a precious roll.

[LizBeth]

10. I know. I w2as down to two rolls and oh my gosh, when I found a 12 pack I was all excited.

Second to the last on the shelf.

[IronLionZion]

18. They could make homemade masks out of toilet paper

or wrap themselves up like a mummy to protect against murder hornets. TP rolls can also help in case of a ship stuck in the Suez canal, if it's very absorbent.

[LizBeth]

22. Lol

[Raine]

52. They deserve a special place in hell 😈for that toilet paper stunt. 🤬 nt

[Grokenstein]

23. I'm just glad to see Lysol back on the damn shelves.

Until very recently, throughout this whole mess Lysol products were impossible to find in my area. Now every store in town is fully stocked, not just with Lysol but multiple brands of disinfectants.

As for the CDC...well, I'm going to stay the current course for a while. Every declaration from them lately (reducing six feet to three, approving unmasked gatherings/travel, this) almost seems deliberately designed to trigger redcap buffoons into declaring "COVID OVAR NAO!!1!," flinging away their mask and hopping onto public transit to argue with the driver.

[NQAS]

29. I stocked up. My daughter told me in no uncertain terms

that I am prohibited from buying Clorox or Lysol wipes until at least 2024.

[cinematicdiversions]

34. I have to admit I fell in love with the clorox wipes.

They have a new permanent position on the household cleaning staff.

[hlthe2b]

12. True for COVID, but not for seeminlngly-forgotten Norovirus! So, those thinking they can ignore

surface disinfection--especially during peak winter season, well, say hello to a "blast" of vomiting/diarrheal illness from a virus that is EXTREMELY long-lived and infectious on surfaces.


There is a reason why the best public health experts do not think in terms of "single" risks.

[Tree-Hugger]

15. Norovirus was my biggest fear....

....until Covid-19 cane along.

I hope we get a Norovirus vaccine someday. Soon.

[roamer65]

17. Mine too.

Noroviruses are harder to destroy.

Instead of a lipid outer layer, noroviruses have a protein outer layer.

[Hugin]

47. +1

I do not get this obsession with telling other people what to do with their lives.

If it makes them happy to clean. Fine. There's so much to be unhappy about right now.

[Withywindle]

49. Ugh, I had that a few years ago

It wasn't the WORST sickness I've ever had, in that it was over pretty quickly...

But it was BY FAR the most disgusting one.


0 stars, do not recommend.

[Raine]

51. I had Norovirus a couple years ago

I think I got it from the floor of a rental car that I had my purse sitting on. I was sick and really weak for a couple of weeks but now that I've had it I'm probably immune so thats good.

[hlthe2b]

53. Sorry to burst your bubble, but no clear evidence of cross-protective immunity to different strains

While immunity is believed to be at least 4 years to the strain of Norovirus causing original infection, but we really don't know if that applies to the other genotypes of Norovirus (NoV) That is but one of the challenges to creating vaccines against NoV. Since most of what we know comes from challenge studies (where individuals are actually intentionally infected with far higher doses than is necessary for natural infection--NoV requires an incredibly low dose in real-world infection), the duration of immunity may be less and far more limited.

All the more reason to take surface disinfection seriously, especially during winter months or in crowded settings.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6410000/

[OhZone]

14. I still do some basic disinfectant of purchases -

And I age mail at least 24 hours.

I figure there are other viruses and bacteria one can avoid getting.

[NullTuples]

43. They've become habits in our home -

And now we're thinking of continuing many of them b/c the other viruses we avoided while not deadly are no fun either. We probably won't be as extreme about it, but once you start thinking in terms of, "do I really need to open that right now?" it's just as easy not to. Same with our revised hand washing habits.

[OhZone]

44. Exactly!

[forgotmylogin]

16. Just watch what goes near your face.

Sounds like the virus *has* to be inhaled to activate. Touching the virus won't let it in, but just avoid handling surfaces or used masks in a way that could dislodge particles into the air where it could be inhaled. Don't rub a bag from the grocery store or new mail on your face!

Keeping everything wiped is still a good idea, but there is low possibility of "re-aerosolization" back into the air so long as people are careful. Which is good!

That's why I shook my head at that Idaho "mask burn" party where people were standing directly over a fire barrel and dropping masks in. That sounds unsafe.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. I think they managed the problem

Prob didn't know in the beginning how it was spread, or surfaces was a better isolation advisory than social distancing in an era of insufficient number of masks.

Also the vaccines were 70-90% effective until last week. Now they're 100% That creates enthusiasm for vaccination, and prevented early-vaccinators from ripping off their masks.

I suspect public policy problem management. But I'm a looney.

[DontBelieveEastisEas]

20. The chances may be far greater than zero

Bolded lines are from
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html

This line shows that surface spread is real.
Hand hygiene is a barrier to fomite transmission and has been associated with lower risk of infection


This mentions efficiency of surface to hands and then to mouth.
But what about the efficiency of a pacifier or a shared cigarette or silverware.
The efficiency would be much higher, along with the risk of infection.
The efficiency of transference of virus particles from fomite surfaces to hands and from hands to mucous membranes on the face


What if you touch a hundred contaminated surfaces a day. Doors, light switches, microwave door, put some dishes away, handle someone else's phone, faucet handles.
Each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000

10,000 divided by 100 = 100.
So, in just 100 days, you are infected. Just over 3 months.


This next line seems to suggest that much of the risk was calculated using outdoor environments, while later, in the same article mention that the surface risks are much less in the outdoor environment.
Some studies estimated exposure risks primarily using outdoor environmental SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification data.

[thesquanderer]

38. re: "What if you touch a hundred contaminated surfaces a day"

Unless maybe you work in a covid ward, I think it would be awfully hard to touch 100 contaminated surfaces in a day, much less do it every day for 100 days. Because, after all, the vast majority of surfaces one comes in contact with are, in fact, not contaminated.

[ananda]

21. I've always been kinda hit and miss about this.

I'm good at masking and distancing now.

That's a given for me. Even vaccinated,
I will continue with that.

[Grokenstein]

25. Good practice.

I'm rather used to double-masking--I've been doing it since well before it was "officially" recommended--and plan to keep it up well after victory is declared. It's going to be interesting to see how society responds to us. Will they demand we unmask when entering stores again, after what will be at least a year and a half of demanding we wear them?

[ananda]

40. Good question.

I hope not. Everyone still masks around here,
but many haven't been vaxed yet.

[Pobeka]

24. We hit it with alcohol, more to reduce viral load than totally disinfect.

Feeling like that was a pretty good strategy.

[Kid Berwyn]

26. Trump knew that in February 2020.

Early February. And he didn’t warn America.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It goes through air, Bob. That's always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch - you don't have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air. That's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than your - you know, your - even your strenuous flus.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911368698/trump-tells-woodward-he-deliberately-downplayed-coronavirus-threat

[AllyCat]

27. Acutally, we still do it because of OTHER bugs, not covid.

No one has been sick in our family with anything for over a year. I believe the lack of GI illness is from our cleaning of surfaces. It is a habit we started at the beginning of the pandemic when we weren't sure how it spread. It is a habit we decided to keep.

[Marthe48]

28. You mean sanitizing the groceries

was a waste of time?

I don't regret the shot of vodka when I was done, but boy, really wanted to tell Instacart I had not saved any time using them to get my groceries! lol

[Backseat Driver]

30. I've pretty much followed my usual

routine of household indoor chores like laundry, bathrooms, dusting/mopping, etc.. and stayed home. Not too different from the usual. Few visited except trusted family. LOL, we got 8 nasty little pet paws and dirty birdie waterfowl that pretty much leave presents all around one would walk outdoors. The community pond blows the dirty, God knows what's in it, storm sewer pond water around via an aerator 3 seasons a year. I've always wiped down can goods before prepping/cooking meals.

If you went "out" you immediately washed mask and hands on return. DH had one confirmed scare at work where they'd taken compliant precautions and shut down 10 days w/pay. I think I've only twice disinfected packages, spraying disinfectant on a delivery service box I knew came from a hot spot and the nylon-cloth handles of the insulated bags left at the door during the peak of a wave here.

GQP DeJoy pretty much took care of possible "infection by mail" pre-late/no delivery, LOL; we compliantly voted early in-person without problems.

I had previously taken advantage of subscriptions for TP and had joined a local, farm raised/organic fresh groceries delivery site - YUM, while also tried to keep our favorite local restaurants alive by ordering in (most all instituted compliant pick-up precautions) about 3 days a week, both reducing our time wandering around the big box grocery stores.

Got vaccines (flu and CoVid) walk-in and as soon as eligible and was fortunate to find appointments just a bit out of the way when our county seemed to have little to no supply, so feel much more confident it won't kill us. Still compliantly masking and distancing, but not much worrying about surfaces or smooching DH.

[Lithos]

32. I still do wipe - somethings

Mostly those items which typically get handled on the shelf a lot. But, I rely more on hand washing.

L-

[samnsara]

35. i never wiped anything down..i just forgot to :(

[Harker]

36. So... all those toilet seat licking morans were just

incredibly unlucky?

[Martin68]

37. I'm kind of proud of myself about this because I was always rather doubtful that surfaces

were much to worry about , and I always thought masks were a good idea, even when the CDC was saying they wouldn't help. But I've been using disinfectant, because I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[harun]

55. CDC only said that about masks so medical staff wouldn't run out.

Masks have been extremely effective. Early on no one knew how tough this virus would be living on surfaces. Rather lucky it was primarily droplet only spread. If hyper aerosolized we'd have had to take some rather crazy actions to slow spread.

[Martin68]

57. That's what I've heard. Sounds totally unethical to me, lying to the public.

It doesn't take an N95 mask to survive Covid. With social distancing and avoiding crowded public areas, the cloth masks my wife made were just fine.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

39. We've basically known for a year that things have not needed sanitizing

or being left outside for three days or any such nonsense.

I haven't purchased a single sanitary wipe or bottle of sanitizer and I'm still the healthiest person I know.


Basically, there have been zero reports of people getting this from surfaces. And, think about what it means to the environment at large for all the sanitizing chemicals to be thrown around, willy-nilly.

[VarryOn]

46. My wife, a teacher, spends tons of time a day wiping down desks and other surfaces...

This will make the teachers' live easier.

I'm grateful schools seem to be a respite for students and teachers...and their families by extension.

[intrepidity]

48. And yet, the WHO report accepts that the virus may have

been introduced via frozen food.

[Raine]

50. So we were scared into doing this crap for a year

and now it was no protection against covid no wonder there's so many doubters about masks etc.

[Kaleva]

56. You were only scared by it if you chose to be.

Most of us acted like adults. followed the best advice available at the time, and did it with out shitting ourselves.

[Raine]

58. I was using the "royal we"

I didn't wash my groceries or any of those extremes but I knew people who did. I never went much beyond the hand sanitizer but this latest certainly gives doubters a reason to doubt and not believe.