Originally Posted by
pdlamb
Do try to keep up!
What we're all suffering through is the urgency to get the best available information disseminated widely, even as the virologists, epidemiologists, et al continue to work the science behind this particular virus. It's be hard work, or it'd be a whole lot easier to hire a virologist. So mid-March, it looked like a deep in the lungs respiratory disease, it made sense to compare it to various diseases that are spread by touching a contaminated surface and then rubbing your face. Three months plus later, it looks like it starts as an upper respiratory disease, indicating it's spread by aerosols (or, if you're a fuddy-duddy epidemiologist, air-borne particles. Yes, some people are stuck on these definitions without a distinction.).
But the science is still going on, and there's not yet a definitive answer that either (a) SARS-COV-2 is spread mostly by aerosols, or (b) SARS-COV-2 is spread mostly by those air-borne particles that settle onto a surface, and the next victim touches that surface and picks their nose or wipes their eyes. It's a pretty good bet that the answer is (a) AND (b), so it's smart to wear a mask AND to wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.
Please read the thread if you are going to make smarmy comments.
My question was a somewhat rhetorical reply to the previous question of whether you can catch covid from surfaces. If you don't catch it from surfaces why wash your hands? begs the question... for most people.
Whether it's aerosol or particle - unless you believe the virus dies immediately upon contact with a surface, it's pretty likely that touching that surface transfers the virus to your hand.. and then by touching.. to your eyes, nose or mouth.