[dboreham]

I'm interested in what the known spreading instances on ships and at conferences tell us about how the virus is transmitted.

As I understand it, the message from CDC etc is, roughly: It's transmitted through droplets coughed or sneezed from one person that then end up through common touching of not-cleaned surfaces and thence into the body through face-touching.

My gut feel is that if that's how transmission occurs, we shouldn't see infection spread between large numbers of people who were simply present in the same room as each other for a few days.

Which makes me wonder if all the hand washing is just "Epidemiology Theater".

[barry-cotter]

> My gut feel is that if that's how transmission occurs, we shouldn't see infection spread between large numbers of people who were simply present in the same room as each other for a few days.

People cough and sneeze all the time, even healthy people, and the droplets of saliva from that land on surfaces that other people touch and then they touch their faces, rub their eyes and pick their noses. So the virus will spread in the air and also by transmission onto mucus membranes from your hands. It’s not airborne but there is droplet transmission. The danger is relatively small if people don’t touch, like shaking hands, hugging or kissing, and if surfaces are wiped down with disinfectants regularly and everyone washes their hands but that does not describe most people’s experience of being in a room with other people for a few days.

[dboreham]

I read in another thread that sneezing aerosolizes the payload such that it will stay in suspension in a large volume of air (a large room for example) for hours. I'd call that "airborne transmission" but it seems that means something different. That being the case, could it be that the hand washing is more to do with reducing the surface area onto which a droplet can land and make it into the target's body? This would explain quite well how someone can infect 50 other people in a large room, and also why hand washing is helpful (but not a 100% protection since droplets can still float in through the nose and mouth).

[ridaj]

There are plenty of commonly-touched surfaces when people spend a long time in the same space: door handles, elevator buttons, countertops, buffet utensils, gym equipment, money...

I don't think the hand-washing is epidemiology theater, in part based on this thread: https://twitter.com/PalliThordarson/status/12365493051895971...

[godshatter]

Not sure about conferences, but for cruise ships buffets would be my guess. Most people on cruise ships eat at least a few meals at an overcrowded buffet. Multiple people touching serving utensils, stacks of plates, fishing for silverware, etc. Not to mention sneezing around open food containers.

[dboreham]

I got the impression people were still being infected on the Diamond Princess after they were confined to their cabins.