Covid spreads through the air. So does our endless disinfecting, hand sanitising and wiping serve any purpose?
This question is addressed in The Guardian of Monday 12 July. Go to G2 page 4 of the printed version or this weblink. Hygiene theatre: how excessive cleaning gives us a false sense of security | Hygiene | The Guardian
If you want to follow up and check up on scientific evidence, have a look at this article in the journal Nature.COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning? (nature.com)
A word of caution: we do not know yet whether the conclusion (that fomite transmission is not significant) applies also to the Delta strain of the virus. If you come across new evidence on the Delta variant please circulate the conclusion on this website.
Bottom line: wearing masks, distancing and ensuring ventilation continue to be very important, especially now that infection rates in Brighton and Hove are going through the roof.
Laurence says
Really interesting, thanks for posting. Agree with your comment too MarkR that there’s a risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater in the messaging.
One thing in the Guardian article which I’d like to flag is they repeatedly knock face visors as “hygiene theatre”. This overlooks the eyes as a potential infection route, see: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(21)00040-9/fulltext
I think it’s right to say that visors are a problem if used as an alternative to face masks, but I certainly think a face mask plus eye covering should really be the gold standard for those in high risk situations (e.g. front line NHS and other key workers), or with particular vulnerabilities. I don’t think this has got any significant media coverage throughout the pandemic (certainly none I’ve seen without actively looking for it), which is unfortunate.
MarkR says
My concern is the ‘messaging’ that might come from this article – will people take it to mean that hand washing isn’t really necessary? Although it is clearly not saying that, a cursory reading might create that impression. Hand washing is of course crucial to stop the spread of other pathogens such as e-coli.