what is the greatest risk of CONTAGIO in the SUPERMARKET

One of the scientists with the most experience in aerosol transmission and professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado (USA), José Luis Jiménez, pointed out in an interview that the highest risk of contagion of the coronavirus in a supermarket It is in the air and not in the bags, surfaces or products that are affected, depending on the medium 20 minutes.

“If you go to the supermarket, the danger isn’t in the bags you bring, the danger is in the air you breathe. And what you need is spend as little time as possible at the supermarket, better ventilated, and with a very good mask, ”replied the expert when asked whether or not it was necessary to disinfect packaging or grocery bags.

What are the recommendations before going to the supermarket?

One of the main recommendations is the frequent hand washing and spending time “ventilating or doing things that protect us from breathing infected air”.

In this sense, the expert also insisted on the fact that the mask It should be “well adjusted to the face, as the air enters the interstices” and he stressed that this is one of the problems of the surgical chin straps. So, to avoid contagion, this indicates that the best thing to do is outdoor activities maintain the physical safety distance of two meters and use the mask.

The risk is in the air, not in the bags

Recently, Professor José Luis Jiménez shared a post on his official Twitter account and warned of a very common mistake made with the gums in surgical masks which “would significantly increase the amount of air flowing in and out without being filtered. “.

Regarding the use of the masks, the expert pointed out that the FFP2 and FFP3 types would be the best if they fit well. “There is now a new type of chinstrap, elastomer, which separates these two functions; they have a good filter and a silicone-like sealant, ”he explains.

As for the three-layer fabric chin straps, “they also work, not for the toilet, but for a person who goes to the supermarket as FFP2 or FFP3 in principle are the best but most people wear them with many holes and then it’s like you don’t wear them, ”he added.

4 facts about the origin of the pandemic

The international team sent by the World Health Organization (WHO) in China to investigate the origin of the covid-19 pandemic, he concluded his stay in the country with a press conference in which he revealed some keys to his conclusions.

“It didn’t change our understanding [sobre el coronavirus]But we certainly know more about it, ”said Peter Ben Embarek, WHO Head of Mission and Zoonoses Specialist.

His investigation lasted about two weeks and was strictly controlled by Chinese authorities, who initially resisted the mission amid calls from the United States to be more transparent and Beijing criticizes Washington for “politicizing” the issue.

After months of negotiations and once in the country, WHO assured that Chinese experts on the ground have been open with them. From the BBC, they summarized the first WHO findings announced during a nearly three-hour conference.

Laboratory leak “extremely unlikely”

During the press conference, held in Wuhan, the head of the international mission rejected the theory that the virus had leaked from a laboratory, an argument on which Donald Trump’s government insisted without presenting any evidence and which has been the subject of conspiracy theories.

Specifically, the Trump administration has pointed out the possibility that the virus could emerge from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, one of the main ones in China in the study of level 4 pathogens, which require the highest degree of security. biological, and that it was one of these. appointed by the authorities to analyze the genome sequence of the new coronavirus.

After visiting this lab and others, Embarek noted the “strict security protocols“in this type of installation and argued that before the appearance of the virus” no scientific publication or no report in any laboratory in the world “had mentioned it. Leaks of this type are” infrequent “, said For all this, the WHO team stressed that this line of research will not be included in future studies.

Bats

The WHO team investigated four potential sources the origin of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to humans:

• Direct transmission of animal to human.
• Transmission by an intermediate animal host (from animal to animal then to man).
• Transmission through frozen foods of the cold chain.
• Possible laboratory leak.

“Investigators consider the second option most likely and this line of inquiry has been prioritized,” BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell, who attended the press conference, told reporters. “Everything continues to point to a reservoir of this virus, or a similar virus, in bat populations, ”Embarek said.

However, they felt it was unlikely that it was found in Wuhan. The team therefore tried to find “other animal species likely to contribute to the introduction of the virus” in the Chinese city, as intermediate hosts.

“There does not appear to have been a large circulation of the virus in no animal species in the country“, where Chinese scientists have analyzed thousands of species without being able to identify specific carriers, he said.

The cold chain

Although the transmission by a intermediate animal host “is the [causa] most likely and one that will require further study and investigation, “Embarek also considered possible transmission through certain frozen foods in the cold chain, although he said they did not know much about it. .

The zoologist explained that the team had identified suppliers of the Huanan “wet” market, to which some of the earliest official cases of covid-19 were linked and in which frozen animal products were sold, including wild animals. “So we have the potential to pursue this path and study the supply chain and the animals that have been distributed in the market,” he said.

Chinese officials have attributed the latest outbreaks in the country to frozen foods imported from overseas and people from other countries, suggesting the virus may have originated in another country.

“We know that the virus can survive under the conditions present in these icy and cold environmentsBut we don’t really know if the virus can be transmitted to humans, “or under what conditions, Embarek said. Therefore, he recommended more studies in this area.

The Wuhan market, at the center of suspicions about the start of the pandemic.

Huanan Antes

The WHO team further revealed that They found no “strong evidence” that the virus was circulating in Wuhan before the first cases were registered in December 2019.

“To understand the panorama of December 2019 we have embarked on a very detailed and in-depth investigation into other cases that may not have been detected until 2019, ”Embarek explained.

“And the conclusion was that we have found no evidence of large outbreaks that could be linked to cases of COVID-19 before December 2019 in Wuhan or elsewhere,” he added. However, Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans explained that doesn’t mean there weren’t any, the BBC reporter reported.

At first, the scientific community considered that the start of the pandemic had occurred mercado de Huanan. The first cases in the city did not only occur in the Huanan market, but also “simultaneously” in other places unrelated to it, of which they did not provide further details on the trace.

In this regard, Liang Wannian, the head of the Chinese expert team that investigated the SARS-CoV-2, noted that the virus could be circulating earlier elsewhere. “In the two months leading up to December, there is no evidence that he was in the city,” Liang said, pointing to possible loopholes in the detection of the virus in other areas.

WHO experts therefore felt that the study should be expanded and reviewed blood samples and animal tanks both in China and other countries. “The possible path of any animal species of origin to the Huanan market could have been long and convulsive, including cross-border movements,” Embarek said. Tracing the origin of the virus, he concluded, is a “work in progress”.