[Devils-Avocado]

Airborne transmission of COVID is sexy, requiring solutions like this, and individual impositions like wearing masks which are easy to police.

But I think the more likely spread of COVID is from mundane surface transmissions. One of the 'mystery' COVID cases in New Zealand was eventually tracked to people touching the same elevator button about an hour apart, for example.

Same here in Europe - everyone is wearing masks, but how many times is the apartment entrance handle touched by people each day?

[petertodd]

Scientific research has not found much evidence for transmission by touch, known in the literature as fomite transmission:

"The principal mode by which people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus."

-https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...

You see this in the guidance by major health organizations. For instance the WHO clearly says:

"Current evidence suggests that the main way the virus spreads is by respiratory droplets among people who are in close contact with each other."

It probably can happen. But contact tracing hasn't found much evidence for it: the majority of infections can be explained by close contact from an infected person.

Re: masks, surgical masks and cloth mask far from 100% effective against small particles, with filtering efficiencies of 50% or less common though the fabric. Filtration is even less when you take into account air that bypasses the mask (the reason why your glasses fog up is because of air that isn't being filtered).

Also, very large numbers of people use them incorrectly, eg by leaving the nose uncovered, and leaving gaps. I don't think this is a matter of education: people know what correct wear is, and don't do it because it's much easier to breath if you defeat the mask's filtration.

Most people aren't wearing masks around family and friends anyway.

[clairity]

yes, masks are not a panacea and are highly politicized. we need to stop focusing on them, and focus on (semi-)private social gatherings of friends and strangers (high heterogeneous mixing coefficients) where most of the community transmission is happening, rather than wearing masks on the street (or even in grocery stores) where transmission risks are practically non-existent but compliance is conspicuous (but ineffective).

[d13]

Stairs, or press buttons with tip of key. Entrance Door with foot or paper tissues. If 1 in 200 have Covid, 50% chance elevator has been recently infected.

[msandford]

First it was the bats and the pangolins who gave it to the people. Then we gave it to the minks who gave it back to us, mutated. Now even the elevators can catch covid?! What's next? I sure hope it doesn't mutate and hop to vegetables or else we won't be able to eat anything!