1987 paper on rhinovirus transmission: It's the aerosols

[squirrelitude]

"Aerosol Transmission of Rhinovirus Colds" in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1987.

The authors had people infected with a rhinovirus strain play cards for 12 hours with uninfected people, with or without the opportunity for aerosol and/or fomite transmission. No evidence for fomite transmission at all. Contact transmission likely only possible when you rub someone's actual snot in your nose.

Sci-hub paper download: https://sci-hub.se/10.1093/infdis/156.3.442

One interesting thing here is that they weren't able to culture any virus off of the cards, pencils, and poker chips that ended up "literally gummy from the donors' secretions". So now I wonder, has anyone done a study on whether SARS-CoV-2 can be cultured from shopping carts and door handles? RNA, sure, but what about infectious virus?

Comments

[elusiveat]

So... is shaking hands okay after all?

[chamaenerion]

It's my understanding (not verified just now) that culturing a cold virus is non-obvious, because it's optimized for reproducing at about a degree lower than the nasal lining, and researchers usually try to culture things at what they think body temperature. It might not have changed their results, of course.

[squirrelitude]

They were able to culture the virus directly from nasal washings, but I suppose a more sensitive assay might have been able to detect live virus on the playing cards.