Originally Posted by
arlflyer
Folks...read the research and take a deep breath. Scientific opinion is quickly reaching near-consensus that, while feasible, surface transmission is a very minimal to nearly nonexistent infection vector. This is proving to be a disease of sustained exposure, enclosed spaces, and high viral loads, as was originally hypothesized. People are not getting it by passing each other on the street or touching a light switch that housekeeping touched 3 hours before. Of course it is imperative to have situational awareness, take reasonable precautions, and avoid needless risk, but some of these concerns are simply not borne out by the data. I am not stepping into any form of mass transit any time soon, and I'll be taking the stairs over the elevator, but hotel stays (in the context of my own room) are not strongly concerning to me.
It's an interesting topic. I've also heard this claim, but the top articles returned by a google search fail to cite scientific studies (i.e. peer-reviewed articles). I'm not saying such studies don't exist, just that I haven't found them (pls share if you have). On the other hand, I also see something like
this:
"An outbreak associated with a shopping mall in Wenzhou, China, may have been fueled by fomite transmission. In January, seven workers who shared an office in a shopping mall became ill when one of their co-workers returned from Wuhan. The mall was closed, and public health officials tracked two dozen more sick people, including several women who had shopped at the mall, as well as their friends. None of them had come into contact with the original sick office workers. The researchers speculated that a women’s restroom or the mall elevators had been the source of transmission."