a year later, the myth falls that clothes, products and surfaces must be disinfected

Surface contagion tests were still questionable, but still, after a year of pandemic and all that is already known about the coronavirus, resources continue to be devoted to these measures which offer a false sense of security. It would be necessary to clean, of course, for a question of hygiene. But there are more and more studies that indicate that you don’t need to disinfect everything to avoid covid. The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a guide to cleaning and disinfecting surfaces in which it gives recommendations. At the beginning of the document, he specifies that so far, “transmission through contaminated surfaces has not been proven conclusively from the available studies ”.

In the same vein, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC for its acronym in English) specifies that “the transmission of the coronavirus to people by contact with surfaces contaminated by the virus has not been documented ”. But he also points out that “the current evidence seems to indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can stay for hours or days on surfaces” and, therefore, recommends disinfecting surfaces as a “preventive measure against COVID-19”.

Miriam Bruno, head of infectology at Durand hospital, brings up this point. “It’s an in-between thing. The most important thing is to wear a mask and clean your hands. While it is not totally excluded that surfaces do not transmit the virus, today we know that contagion by contact with the surface is more distant ”.

Bruno, on the other hand, recommends not to be completely reckless. “It’s important for people to know that the risk of infection is there. Because if we say they don’t infect people are very careless. However, we have to accept that this is not what we are doing. pensions at the beginning of last year, when there was an exaggerated care of surfaces. Today we know that you don’t have to disinfect everything like before. You don’t have to take your shoes off to enter the house, or take a bath every time we go out, or disinfect clothes, shoes, or fruits and vegetables. ”

In this regard, the infectologist said that “it is important to wash fruits and vegetables as always, but it is too much to disinfect them with Lysoform or to disinfect the bags. It’s not necessary “.

He also clarified that it is already known that the coronavirus is found in the microdroplets that are thrown into the air when we cough or sneeze. “There is no evidence that the virus is transmitted through the skin or through sweat.”

For his part, biologist Emanuel Goldman, professor at Rutgers University (New Jersey, United States) explained that there is “little evidence” that objects and surfaces are routes of transmission, therefore “efforts” should be put into correct use of chin straps and ventilation, although they do not discourage cleaning and hand hygiene.

“Little or nothing. Only two or three possible cases in the scientific literature, but even these are not proven,” replied Goldman, professor of microbiology at the Rutgers School of Medicine, when asked about the evidence of contagion of the coronavirus by fomites or transmission. by a “infected surface”.

Already in July 2020, Goldman wrote an article in the British scientific journal The Lancet in which he warned that “a clinically significant risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by fomites (surfaces or inanimate objects) has been assumed on the basis of studies that hardly resemble real scenarios“.

In addition, he reviewed the studies which had shown that the virus could survive for two to six days on some surfaces, which the specialist believed was the product of two factors: a very high viral inoculum and conditions of special laboratory for its conservation. “I am not discussing the results of these studies, only their applicability to real life,” he noted.

“Finding the virus’s RNA is usually the same as finding the dead body of the virus. This is what the virus leaves after ‘dying’. It just means that the virus was there once, but is no longer ‘alive’ (able It is a fragile virus which dies quickly in the environment and when it dries. Sunlight kills it almost immediately. Virtually all tests for live virus (infectious) when viral RNA has been found were negative, ”Goldman explained.