[rapjr9]

If you actually read that article it says surface transmission is a _minor_ risk and is possible. It's not zero risk. It's also difficult to prove it is or is not happening. Omicron is thought to replicate faster, so a smaller amount of it could be a larger risk, including on surfaces. Has anyone studied Omicron surface viability specifically? At the very least, if someone wipes their nose with their hand, then touches a door handle and then another person soon after touches the door handle and then wipes their nose with their hand that is a lot like taking a swab from one person and putting it in the nose of another. So surface transmission seems obviously possible (and there are a couple known possible examples of it in the article), but doesn't seem to happen as often as aerosol transmission, but it is also hard to measure in the wild so it is still something of an unknown. Lots of people have stopped washing groceries and are doing ok. Lots of people still are using Purell very often also. Keeping the virus off your hands so you don't introduce it to your mouth or nose seems like a good idea. Trying to sanitize objects is recommended in the article, but only after other countermeasures and only if you have the time. Sanitizing your hands accomplishes the same thing as sanitizing surfaces -if- you always remember to sanitize your hands before touching your nose or mouth after touching something that might be contaminated. Viruses degrade with time on surfaces at varying rates, so infectiousness drops with time. The article says we don't actually know what that decay over time is in the wild. It also says there have been no conclusive cases of surface transmission, but that's only because it is hard to observe in the wild. How do you tell if someone breathed it or touched it? So "no evidence" here means "we don't know and can't figure out how to do a good experiment since we can't intentionally infect people". Aerosols are definitely the higher risk, but you can't rule out some surface transmission. Risk likely varies by surface location as well. A ceiling is low risk, opening your car trunk is probably low risk, a public bathroom door handle is higher risk.