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When cases of Covid-19 started to appear in Australia, some people said they disinfected their groceries before bringing them home, and there were also concerns that the virus could live on the surface of packages in the mail. During Victoria’s extended lockdown, crews of workers could be seen marching through city streets disinfecting traffic light buttons, benches and even fences.
An epidemiologist from the University of La Trobe, Associate Professor Hassan Vally, said just over a year later that it became clear that surface transmission is not such a big factor in the spread of Covid -19 that it was once feared. While surface transmission is not impossible, Vally said its role from the perspective of propagation needs.
“I want to be clear that nothing should change in terms of hand washing and personal hygiene,” said Vally. “We can, however, be less concerned with washing each surface 20 times a day, and just focus on good hand hygiene and social distancing, and staying home when sick, which should be more than enough.” to prevent us from spreading the virus. ”
Close contact aerosol spread is the determining factor in the transmission of Covid-19, primarily when an infected person comes into close contact with another person and transmits small liquid particles [droplets and aerosols] containing the virus, especially when they cough and sneeze. These aerosols then enter the nose, mouth and eyes of people nearby.
In a post for the conversation, Vally said, “This is not to say that surface transmission is not possible and safe in some situations, or that we should ignore it altogether. But we must recognize that the threat posed by surface transmission is relatively low. “
Emanuel Goldman, professor of microbiology at Rutgers University in the United States, wrote in the medical journal The Lancet that warning studies of surface transmission had been carried out in the laboratory, and “bear little resemblance to actual scenarios. “.
“In my opinion, the risk of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very low, and only in cases where an infected person coughs or sneezes on the surface and someone else touches that surface shortly after coughing or sneezing (within 1 to 2 hours), ”Goldman said.
“I don’t dispute the idea of being cautious, but it can go to extremes not supported by the data.” Periodic disinfection of surfaces and the use of gloves may be reasonable precautions in settings like hospitals, he said, but are likely excessive for less risky environments.
Seemingly alarming but exaggerated studies, including that of the Australian government agency CSIRO, which found that a droplet of liquid containing the virus at concentrations similar to those seen in infected patients could survive on surfaces such as the cash and glass. to 28 days.
What many reports about the study failed to mention was that it was performed in the dark to suppress the effect of ultraviolet light which helps kill viruses. Humidity and temperatures in the real world are constantly changing, which is different from the temperatures carefully controlled in a laboratory. Mail, for example, will pass through different humidities and temperatures throughout the system and will also be exposed to light, making the survival of the virus in the post extremely unlikely.
The science was not wrong, Vally said, but the interpretation and explanation of the results was.
But isn’t it better to have too many hygiene measures to be absolutely safe?
Vally said the problem was compliance fatigue.
“There’s been a lot of psychological research that says we only have a certain amount of willpower and a number of details that we can focus our attention on,” Vally said. “That’s why Apple founder Steve Jobs wore the same clothes every day, based on the idea that you can only make a limited number of decisions each day and exercise some will.
“For me, as we learn more about the virus, we need to make sure that we aren’t worried about things we shouldn’t be worried about, we don’t want to focus our attention on things that are disproportionate to the threat they represent. This way, we will have more energy to focus on the things that are important, which also helps us save money and time.
Peter Collignon, infectious disease physician and professor at Australian National University, agreed that all available evidence indicates that it is people close to each other who speak, cough, sing and breathe heavily that are helping the virus spread. .
“They inhale it and it gets into their nose and their eyes and that’s the main risk factor,” he says. That’s why eye protection, especially in hotels and quarantine hospitals, should be a priority as much as masks and social distancing, he said.
Collignon cites a large study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that 19% of healthcare workers were infected, despite wearing three-layer surgical masks, gloves and shoe covers and using an alcohol disinfectant. After the introduction of face shields, no workers were infected.
“I think we underestimated how important the eyes are and the overestimated surfaces,” said Collignon.
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