But wouldn’t transmission drop off by then because patients sick that long are probably greatly reducing their interaction with others (too sick to do much of anything), and whoever they do interact with knows that they are sick with something serious?
I was in Florida in the middle of February and I can guarantee not a word was being said about it to the people of Florida from the Governor or public health officials.
Even weeks later, the administration was saying cases would be down to zero very soon. It was all under control. It was only people coming from China or cruise ships. They said no community spread was occurring, if I recall correctly it was “only 15 cases and I like the numbers where they are.”
We (the public or North East Governors) had no idea it was coming to the east coast from Europe and had been since likely sometime in January.
European travel wasn’t even shut down until the second week of March.
I think transmission drops off then because the virus is no longer replicating fast. More about a disease process than a social process.
EWWWW!!! There was a segment on tonight’s news about the risk of using public bathrooms. Apparently the water in the toilets flush (spray?) upwards and aerosolizes some of the content. And… wait for it… the virus can remain in feces for… over 30 days!!!
Oh, and don’t touch the hot/cold water spicket things or soap dispensers or use the electronic hand dryers- those suckers can blow stuff all over the place! They talked about what it would cost to update all public restrooms with those automatic water and soap things that turn on when you put your hand under them, and the same with the auto paper towel dispensers (NOT cheap!) And no clue how they would replumb toilets so the water doesn’t splash/aerosolize. Oh and stay out of unisex bathrooms (I missed the whole explanation, but can imagine). And diaper changing stations… (they didnt mention but I can imagine…) I think this is going to haunt me!!
That’s it. I’m never leaving my house again.
I don’t have the article or video in front of me, but (a)many people have only mild symptoms or if they are sick may stay home with family for many days (who knows how well they quarantine) and (b) if they are hospitalized for any length of time, this suggests that they may be less contageous after day 5 of symptoms. tHey emphasized that the biggest risk are the asymptomatic and presymptomatic folks, adn that peak contageon is one day prior to symptom onset.
Those hand blow dryers were a great feel good idea but always seemed detrimental - if for no other reason than the blasted decibel level in an enclosed, echoing environment. Hospitals were wise to the health concerns and started getting rid of them.
Those auto flushing toilets are another example of ‘sounded better in my head’. Am I the only one who has ever - um, been in the position - and moved in the wrong way - resulting in a spray of wet stuff on the bumpkiss? Again, just gross.
Most public restrooms I’ve been in (Nor Cal) have automatic soap dispensers and automatic on/off water faucets. The faucets due to drought measures. The problem has been water output so dang low you couldn’t get a good soaping/washing done in any reasonable manner.
It’s time for decent water output, paper towels and toilets which use a few more gallons of water but don’t spray all over the place.
Ya had me at “the power…LIES”
That the virus was found in feces has been known since the first patient in Washington State. Similar to SARS, in that respect. And there were posts here at least a month back explaining that toilets produce aerosols.
Still, other than giving public restrooms a squint, I’ll mostly avoid spending too much time too close to strangers.
so???
Happy to hear nothing ever gets repeated or updated or expounded upon in a thread of 176 pages.
Is the virus that is found in fecal matter live and contagious or dead RNA?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666014/ compares toilet flush aerosol generation.
Table 1 there has:
Toilet type and flush condition Total droplets Droplet generation rate*
produced* (droplets/L flushed)
Pre-FEPA gravity flow (13.3 Lpf) 54,363 (6764) 4,165 (570)
HET, low-volume flush (3.8 Lpf) 8,220 (616) 2,237 (158)
HET, high-volume flush (4.9 Lpf) 10,620 (1060) 2,100 (189)
PAT, low-volume flush (4.2 Lpf) 25,762 (1855) 6,546 (545)
PAT, high-volume flush (4.9 Lpf) 40,521 (1955) 8,001 (308)
FOM (5.3 Lpf) 145,214 (8325) 25,663 (1525)
HET = high efficiency (gravity flow) toilet
PAT = pressure assisted toilet
FOM = flush-o-meter (tankless, commonly used in public restrooms)
So you probably want to install low water consumption gravity flow toilets in your house if you want to reduce aerosol generation.
But it may be hard to avoid in a public restroom, given the predominance of flush-o-meter toilets in those situations.
I agree that the governors of FL, and all those governors and health experts in the northeast could have / should have been more vocal about the health concerns with their citizens. Again, this was a Miami Herald article, scrutinizing their own state government’s response to Covid-19, but FL was not the only state that misjudged it.
Local news in Boston says home renovations are up. People are spending their vacation money on fixing up their houses. Makes sense.
@momzilla2D , I talked to my interior designer (we are trying to remodel a house we bought in December that is currently uninhabitable) and she stunned me by saying she has been swamped. I would have thought with another “Great Depression” looming that interior decorating would have come to a crashing halt as people hold on to what used to be discretionary funds. Nope, she said that with people spending so much time at home, they started noticing shortcomings and want to change them. Some people need help creating home offices, but she most of it is just a desire to re-decorate.
Good news for our line of work (structural engineering). Now we have to figure out what to do with morons who hire us, tell us what to design, realize the renovation is WAY too expensive, then don’t want to pay us because they have “nothing to show” for our bill. That has happened to us several times now with attorney clients. Once or twice, we asked if people understood how much a project might cost, and they let us know that wasn’t our concern. SIgh.
Emilybee the hospitals were not overrun as expected. The comfort was converted to taking Covid patients (originally planned for non-Covid) but it was nearly empty. The most it ever had was 40 patients. There was also room at the Javits Center. Where I live the hospital also prepared for a surge that never happened. There was more than enough room at the inn.
Nursing home and long term care facility patients absolutely had somewhere to go if only NYS policy had brought them there. Instead they were left to die and/or infect others.
How this was handled in NYS was criminal and inhumane.
Folks could always go back to using outhouses. 
I like the new “green” restrooms one can find in some rest areas in VA and NY. They are no flush, composting toilets. Better for the environment and apparently better for not sharing viruses. They had me hooked at better for the environment.
Anyone else want to share if they are elsewhere? We haven’t seen them on our travels, but obviously, we don’t stop at every rest stop out there. We also haven’t been west of Missouri in a few years now, so things could have changed.
If the New Yorkers didn’t adhere to the strictest shelter in then those hospitals would have been overrun. I give Cuomo credit for that. New Yorkers did what we had to do because many of us believed what Cuomo and the scientists were telling us. Trust me, I was looking at those predictions everyday and I am so very happy that we were able to flatten the curve to let the hospitals catch up and allow the scientists to have a bit more time to develop vaccines and cures.