Should we stop worrying so much about transmission from surfaces?

[Echobelly]

Obviously we should all keep washing hands anyway as a precaution, but it seems that at the moment there is no proof that people are likely to catch C19 from surfaces.

The fear started with much-quoted research early on that said it could live on surfaces for up to two weeks, but this article (and others I have seen since) have explained that researchers used the equivalent of 100 infected people coughing on the same spot. Which is not going to happen. It actually has a much shorter life on surfaces, plus you need quite a lot of droplets to get infected: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/

This virologist explains that we have as yet no hard evidence of transmission from a surface - it's possible, but seems unlikely:

And many of us have been touching shopping (c'mon, not many of us have disinfected everything coming into the house) and kids went to plenty of playgrounds over summer and didn't seem to cause huge outbreaks.

Of course, we can't all just 'decide' this for ourselves, but I do wonder what it would take for the authorities to say 'You know what, keep washing your hands, but touching stuff is actually OK'? It would make a lot of stuff in schools, childcare, work, catering etc much easier and less stressful if we could lose the hyper-vigilance about touching things - as I can't see evidence that we need to maintain it.

Yes. Most of the official advice is saying this now. It was thought to be a much bigger issue than it is. The bigger risk is face to face contact.

Hilariously in our school we're obsessive about the 72 hour quarantine rule for marking, not touching or handing out paper, we throw all lost property in the bin.....but no one wears a mask

Yes. Surface transfer doesn’t seem to be such an issue they first thought off. We need to be careful.

It's sad because now everyone else on our street seems to feel kids can't do trick or treat, and I think it's mainly because of picking up sweets. I'm wondering about sharing that video on our whatsapp and saying 'Honestly, touch is not an issue'. Of if people are still worried, just agree we'll put a bucket of sweets by the door, having washed our hands before putting anything in there and kids can hand sanitise between houses! A bit OTT but might put people's minds at rest.

Especially if we were all to, say, go for sachets of sweets - if you're super paranoid you could always open packet, tip it onto a plate and wash your hands before eating.

I never bothered about surfaces tbh. Never disinfected shopping or quarantined deliveries. I'm not sure most schools are doing much about surfaces either. I work in several. Paper being handed out, communal coloured pencils being used etc.

Yes, I think there’s been more reports on this this week. I’m pleased as I didn’t bother washing my shopping... I’ll still wash hands but I can be less scared of supermarket trolly handles etc.

We know now that surfaces don’t spread the virus, outdoors and in fresh air the virus isn’t spreading so we can really hone in to where the infections are occurring (indoors, prolonged face to face contact).

Yes, and how annoying we bought all that soap instead of masks. The resistance to masks felt cultural to some extent.

Agree, it has become evident that transmission is from close person to person contact

I hope they don't shut playgrounds again - I mean, my kids are old enough to still enjoy them but not be dependent on them, but they are a sanity-saver for parents with younger kids, in some ways especially in winter when you can't manage long trips out but might at least manage a short trip to the playground if nothing else!

But hopefully things like that will stop happening now as people see surfaces as less of an issue.