# Coronavirus general discussion and chit-chat **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [August 12, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903 "2020-08-12T17:29:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 87
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1725 "2022-07-27T19:15:53Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > But I don’t think it applies to covid. You catch covid through the air, not from surfaces. It applies for SARS-CoV-2 virions on surfaces. Look at the specific question @Bonum_Legatum asked. Perhaps I misread. I thought **Bonum** was asking something to the effect of “_When a virion lands on a surface, what physically happens when it degrades?_” I believe the McGill University link answered that question. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1726 "2022-07-27T19:17:49Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > So in terms of surfaces, party like it’s 2019. Well … yes, right. I agree. I admit to being a little perplexed at our exchange over the last few posts. Perhaps posting slightly at cross-purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1727 "2022-07-27T19:27:25Z")
Thank you **bordelond**. Your post is exactly what I was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1728 "2022-07-27T19:38:05Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I admit to being a little perplexed at our exchange over the last few posts. Perhaps posting slightly at cross-purposes. Yeah, I misunderstood the question. I thought the question was along the lines of “I know at first we were sanitizing everything, but what’s the current guidance?” The answer to that (unasked) question appears to be “nothing.” As in, just practice the same hygiene you always did, or maybe a slightly improved version if you used to slack off, for the same reasons you always did. It looks like the question was more interested in the technical mechanisms just for curiosity’s sake. And in that context, I agree that a cite from April 2020 is perfectly cromulent. ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1729 "2022-07-27T20:37:50Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > But I don’t think it applies to covid. You catch covid through the air, not from surfaces. Exactly. It’s hard to get covid through surfaces mainly because the proteins and lipids in the viral envelope make it sticky. The likelihood of getting a good dose of viruses to unstick from the surface onto your hand, then unstick from your hand into your nose or mouth is pretty low even if the viruses are still intact and “viable”. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1730 "2022-07-29T22:21:19Z")
Our local rail transit agency just made masks mandatory again. That’s the fourth change since April, and just a couple of weeks since they last said masks were no longer needed. People around here are so confused. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1731 "2022-07-29T23:49:34Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Question: What is the mechanism that causes a virus that has landed on a surface - say a kitchen counter - to degrade over time? Here’s one report from 2020 that discusses Covid time spans for different surfaces - but does not discuss the mechanism. I don’t know about Covid specifically, but in many cases, UV light degrades and kills germs. > **[Does UV Light Actually Disinfect and Kill Viruses? – Beckman Laser Institute](https://www.bli.uci.edu/does-uv-light-actually-disinfect-and-kill-viruses/)** ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1732 "2022-07-30T00:55:52Z")
> [@Tfletch1](#): > > > [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > > > Suppose a person had Covid with mild symptoms, follows the CDC recommendations and 10 days later could theoretically go back to work. They feel OK at this point, except still no sense of smell. Is that worrisome at that point? Can they safely be back among people? > > Lost of smell for several weeks used to be a pretty common side effect of covid. Sometimes it lasts for months and is considered a long covid symptom. People are usually no longer contagious. Yeah, i think the infection can damage some of the nerves involved in smelling, and it takes a while for them to heal. A rapid test is a much better estimator of whether you’re infectious than “can you smell”, or, in fact, many symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1733 "2022-08-04T23:51:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yeah, i think the infection can damage some of the nerves involved in smelling, and it takes a while for them to heal. It should be interesting to see how people are doing in a few years because damage to your sense of smell can take a **really** long time to heal. Over the course of two years I worked for my university’s housing department painting dorm rooms for a total of about 7 months: two summers between Memorial day and Labor day, and J term in between those summers which is the threeish weeks between December 27 and MLK day. During J term a fair number of students who’d been “invited by the university to take the spring term off” came with family or friends to pack up their dorm rooms. A few of these days it was -40 windchill so most of our interactions with these people were trying to keep out of their way as we painted the hallways, and scolding them for trying to prop the doors open that’d freeze us to death. Except for one person, who wanted to know how we could stand the smell of the paint. We’d all worked together the summer before, and we all asked her “what smell?” and immediately realized that not one of us could smell the paint anymore. None of could pinpoint when the smell had stopped bothering us. In the end took 10 years before I could smell laytex paint again. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1734 "2022-08-05T19:29:19Z")
Just mulling something: Since the beginning of the pandemic, Michigan has a count of 37,500+ deaths due to Covid. That is greater than the entire population of Eastpointe or of Holland. (If you prefer the largest city, it is about 6% of the population of Detroit.) For your state, what city would be of similar comparison? - Obviously I mean in comparison to your state’s numbers. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1735 "2022-08-05T20:15:50Z")
Oregon: More than Madras, just shy of Scappoose. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1736 "2022-08-05T20:19:43Z")
Kansas: About 9,000 deaths, which is approximately the size of Chanute, the state’s 40th largest city. (Yes, I know, ‘city’ is a relative term.) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1737 "2022-08-05T21:46:58Z")
Hmm, closer to the 63rd largest city in my vaccinated state. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1738 "2022-08-05T22:04:42Z")
Connecticut has lost a little over 11,000 people to COVID, which would be around the 91st largest town in the state. Which is weird, because in terms of per capita deaths Connecticut is likely ranked towards the bottom. The tri-state area of NY/NJ/CT suffered a disproportionate amount of deaths right out of the gate as the virus entered the country through the New York airports. Meaning I expected the total to be more like the 20th largest town, not 90th. EDIT: Looks like red state intransigence over time has overcome that initial wave. As of today, Mississippi has the most covid deaths per capita. New Jersey is 9th, New York 15th and Connecticut 26th. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1739 "2022-08-06T18:09:48Z")
Yeah, NY, NJ, and to a lesser extent CA, CT, and MA had a disproportionate number of deaths at the very start of the pandemic, but anti-vax states have largely caught up. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1740 "2022-08-06T18:59:59Z")
At 93,919 deaths, COVID has wiped out the equivalent of Compton, the 80th largest city in the state. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1741 "2022-08-06T19:49:58Z")
Colorado: 13,726 deaths. This is the equivalent of Federal Heights, which is the 51st in size. It’s a small suburb of Denver. Since Denver is the largest city, it would be 1.9% of Denver’s population. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1742 "2022-09-22T03:28:58Z")
Okay, here’s something I’ve wondered for a bit: I know getting a mask wet is no bueno. But today, I had drips from an overflowing drink run down my arm and trip onto the inside of the mask. There are very small streaks of red on the inside, but the outside looks okay. My understanding is that this compromises its ability to keep viruses out. Is my understanding correct? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1743 "2022-09-22T03:39:02Z")
Aaron Collins, “the mask guy” > **[Aaron Collins](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3fF_rzkmZD0ufN685YE7lg)** > > Mask Testing and Review. Hopefully I will get to go back to just videos of me riding my bike but doing what I can to help us get there. says that getting a mask wet isn’t a problem. He’s covered it a few times in the Q&A of his videos. He says masks have even been tested with artificial sweat, and that doesn’t decrease their effectiveness. (except of course if they get too wet you can’t breath through them at all.) He also says that getting wet with alcohol, or similar solvents, is a really serious problem. Masks work in part because the filter layer holds an electrostatic charge that attracts the particles that carry viruses. And alcohol permanently removes that charge. He says you shouldn’t, for instance, write on your mask with a sharpie because the solvent will effectively punch a hole through the mask where you write. But just water, or even salt water, is okay. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903/1744 "2022-09-22T14:18:10Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > drips from an overflowing drink run down my arm and **trip** onto the inside of the mask. What, exactly, were you drinking? Is there more available? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903.md?page=86) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-general-discussion-and-chit-chat/917903.md?page=88)