Or would the heat of the oven kill all the germs?
Damn I love bannana bread but I don’t want to get sick.
No cite, but theres a lot of waiters and cooks out there working with colds. Unless they sneeze directly on the food it should be fine.
I have heard of cooks with GI upsets making people sick. Usually because the cook didn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom. <yuck>
if it has this thin runny glaze on top then it might be suspect.
ewww. I decided better safe than sorry but I am still curious about the answer.
The heat would denature the virus. The internal temperature of a cooked cake should be about 200F. That should be well enough.
Not only that but the common cold virus doesn’t survive well or long outside the body, on most surfaces.
Also, the common cold is a respiratory illness. Even if some virii were left intact in the cake, they are not going to survive your stomach.
Made, no. Handled after coming out of the oven, yes - whether they were the maker or not.
The common cold is not a food Bourne illness, so you are fine eating the bread.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/ucm181242.htm#part2-2
You will probably get the cold anyway, if you have contact with the person who is sick, but you are not at risk because of eating the banana bread.
it is a long established fact that flu and the common cold are respiratory viruses primarily spread in gunk aerosols infected people launch into the air we breathe by their coughing and sneezing. Yet the CDC and Those Who Know What Is Best continue to insist hand washing and using hand sanitizer is our best protection against contracting airborne illnesses. What?
Because your alleged “established fact”, isn’t.
Last year a local affiliate of the Red Cross dropped off a small basket of goodies for us (as recognition for prior donations). It included a small loaf of banana bread, which had an unusually soft and runny consistency.
Usually I’ll eat pretty much anything, but I draw the line at undercooked baked goods from unknown sources, whether or not they’re known to be harboring pathogens. I threw it out. 
You could get sick because the banana bread maker had the germs on his hands, and he touched your bread, or bread container. You then touched that bread or container. If you then proceeded to touch your eyes or nose - you could get sick.
You’d be safer eating bread that person had spent 10 minutes hacking his lungs into before cooking than if you simply wiped your nose once following touching something he did. But you probably already touched your face the average 2-4 times a minute since you saw him.