How Exactly Do You Catch Covid-19? There Is a Growing Consensus
Six months into the
coronavirus crisis, there’s a growing consensus about a central question: How
do people become infected? It’s not common to
contract Covid-19 from a contaminated surface, scientists say. And fleeting
encounters with people outdoors are unlikely to spread the coronavirus. Instead, the major
culprit is close-up, person-to-person interactions for extended periods.
Crowded events, poorly ventilated areas and places where people are talking
loudly - or singing, in one famous case - maximize the risk.
These emerging
findings are helping businesses and governments devise reopening
strategies to protect public health while getting economies going
again. That includes tactics like installing plexiglass barriers, requiring
people to wear masks in stores and other venues, using good ventilation systems
and keeping windows open when possible. Two recent large
studies showed that wide-scale lockdowns—stay-at-home orders, bans on large
gatherings and business closures—prevented millions of infections and deaths
around the world. Now, with more knowledge in hand, cities and states can
deploy targeted interventions to keep the virus from taking off again,
scientists and public-health experts said.
That means better
protections for nursing-home
residents and multigenerational
families living in crowded conditions, they said. It also means stressing
physical distancing and masks, and reducing the number of gatherings in
enclosed spaces. “We should not be
thinking of a lockdown, but of ways to increase physical distance,” said Tom
Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit public-health
initiative. “This can include allowing outside activities, allowing walking or
cycling to an office with people all physically distant, curbside pickup from
stores, and other innovative methods that can facilitate resumption of economic
activity without a rekindling of the outbreak.” The group’s reopening
recommendations include widespread testing, contact tracing and isolation of
people who are infected or exposed....
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-exactly-do-you-catch-covid-19-there-is-a-growing-consensus-11592317650
