Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[SvennoJ]

JRPGfan said:

sethnintendo said:

I'm more concerned about getting it through person to person. Cases of contact with surfaces and then touching mouth or face are likely to cause minor infections because the viral load is so low. Sure I'll wash my hands after getting home if I go to grocery store or gas station but I'm not going to spray myself down with Lysol and hand sanitizer turning myself into a hyper OCD. Shit I was semi OCD before all this shit washing my hands more than most people and I'm not going to turn myself into even more. I'll wear my damn mask and sometimes use hand sanitizer at work and wash my hands every so often. Heck I touch my mask at work because im a human fucking being and I have this mask on that makes it even more itchy. I'm not going to wash my fucking hands every time I want to touch my mask or itch my face at work. We are required to wear gloves also.

This whole worrying about surfaces is fucking overblown.  It's people that aren't wearing masks that are talking, singing, dancing or otherwise just close to each other that are getting the most sick.  Viral loads from surfaces are the least of my concern.

This.

A elector a infected person used, may infect like 500 people at once in a few days.
However most of those will be light in virus loads, and likely give less horrible outcomes than ones where some bastard sneezes into your face.

Thats what kills, a strong cough into someones face, or a sneeze.
Here have a buttload of virus! free of charge.

There was that one bus driver, that complained about a woman caughing right into his face, he lateron got the virus and died.
People need to wear masks, and damn well do their best to caugh into elbows (or hell even their own hands, (better than into someones face)).

It's all a game of chance, probabilities adding up.

In theory, one micro droplet landing in the right place in your body can infiltrate and start an infection. However most will get stuck somewhere harmless where the virus can't infect or simply fails to start duplicating. The higher the exposure and/or the longer the exposure, the more chances the virus gets to land somewhere where it can get in.

So all we do is reduce the chance, wash hands more frequently, wear face masks, keep a distance, stay outside or only short term in enclosed spaces. There are no guarantees with any of that, only severely reducing the chances the virus will have to infiltrate, which adds up to pushing Rt below 1.0 and virus losing ground until it disappears.

There are stories of one person in a restaurant infecting 7 others through the air and stories of one infected person coming into contact with hundreds of people without infecting anyone.

Wash hands frequently, keep the viral load on your hands low to none.
Wear face masks, keep the viral load going in and out to a minimum (stops up to 90% of droplets, but not micro droplets)
Social distancing, quadratic distance rule, twice as far away, volume increases by 8 times, reducing the viral load.
Stay outside, virus in the air disperses.
Stay inside as short as possible, lower the exposure time.
UV-C air filters, keep the viral load in the air to a minimum, don't let it build up.

The more you combine, the lower the chance, but it will never be zero.

My concerns with back to school are, yes more sanitation is encouraged, yes face masks are required most of the day and social distancing remains in effect. However the kids are still 6 hours of the day inside the same room/building where micro droplets can build up and circulate (they survive for 3 hours in the air). Air quality is not addressed at all. So while the chances are lower, there is still that duration part of the equation when it comes to chances of spreading the infection.

When the number of infected people is low enough, there's probably little to worry about. Yet when multiple infected people end up in the same room/building, those micro droplets start to add up, increasing the chances of further spread.