Have we figured out whether coronavirus is significantly spread via contaminated surfaces?

by philg

“NYC subways will close overnight for coronavirus cleanings” (New York Post):

New York’s 24/7 subway system will shutter nightly from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. to facilitate coronavirus cleaning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday in a historic move.

“You never had a challenge of disinfecting every train every 24 hours,” said Cuomo in an Albany press briefing, a problem he earlier this week directed the MTA to solve. “It can best be done by stopping train service from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every night.”

The “massive undertaking” is expected to impact 10,000 riders nightly, according to Cuomo, who said buses, vans and for-hire vehicles will be provided to pick up the slack.

“You do have essential workers who are using our trains and subways, and they will have transportation during that period of time,” Cuomo vowed.

The larger push to clean up the subway system has been made for those workers, who Cuomo said deserve better than dangerous, unsanitary trips to and from the front lines.

“It is our obligation as human beings to reciprocate, and make sure we’re doing everything we can,” he said.

Fine words, of course, from a guy who will probably not be working at 2:00 am with a bottle of Formula 409. But is there any evidence that touching surfaces previously touched by the plague-infected is a significant source of transmission? Is it touching door handles and subway poles that have turned New York into Wuhan-on-the-Hudson or is it sharing air, while actually together inside the subway and buses, that is primarily responsible?

For those of us who don’t live in a plague center (Boston and New York are the only ones left in the U.S.?), should we be touching everything with a cloth, OCD-style, or not worrying too much if we’re not in a crowded space?

10 thoughts on “Have we figured out whether coronavirus is significantly spread via contaminated surfaces?”

  1. The larger problem is the subways have become a homeless shelter. This allows the government to kick the homeless out.

    • Right — the subways have become a hotel for vagrants and shutting them down will allow whomever to clear them out. The vagrants are filthy and sleep, defecate and urinate on the subways — all of which i have witnessed — and that cannot help but raise health issues for the rest of us. The vagrancy problem has been on the upswing for some time, since way before the pandemic because of the incompetence and corruption of NY government officials including the Mayor, Bill de Blasio (A/K/A Warren Wilhelm Jr. A/K/A The Dope From Park Slope). Remember NY collects $48 billion in personal income taxes alone + sales, property & excise taxes — in total about $73 bil. So where does the money go?

    • Remember NY collects $48 billion in personal income taxes alone + sales, property & excise taxes — in total about $73 bil. So where does the money go?

      Salary and benefits for over-funded, over-staffed cops, firewhiners, teachers, and other NYC government employees.

  2. Your beloved Moscow subway closes 1:00am-6:00am. Anyway, actually cleaning subway trains daily irregardless of coronoplague seems like a good idea 😀

    • SK: People should be in bed! Here’s a study that says we can cut flu prevalence by 2% via cleaning surfaces: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121424/ “Regular cleaning of high-touch surfaces, which can reduce the infection risk by 2.14%, is recommended and is much more efficient than hand-washing.” But do we have study like this to inform our actions and panic level regarding coronavirus?

      (And why are people so passionate about reminding other people to wash hands when this cuts disease transmission by less than 2 percent?)

  3. How much are they going to pay the workers to clean the trains in the wee hours of the morning? Since the raison d’être is to scour the trains of the deadly virus, that has to be some kind of hazardous duty/overtime?

    Why not take the opportunity to screen some of the homeless and give the ones able to work a job cleaning the trains?

  7. My hunch, based on the news, is that sharing air is really the major source of transmission.

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