Is the answer known?
Is it safe to read delivered and purchased newspapers and magazines?
A paper, Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents,
in Journal of Hospital Infection,
doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022,
in Table 1, sets out persistence of Strain P9 corona viruses on paper as 4 - 5 d [presumably d is days].
Here is a helpful video on how to lessen the chances of food packaging causing contamination, Dr.Jeffrey van Wingen, in Michigan :
https://youtu.be/sjDuwc9KBps
Without thinking much and based on the availability of information from the media in Nigeria, one can say that to an extent, the newspaper can carry the virus for some hour.
In February 2020 some reports stated that COVID-19 was less prone to mutation that influenza virus and was even relatively stable.
More recently in April May and June 2020 there have emerged suggestions that in fact COVID-19 does undergo mutations. Some researchers report observing such mutations.
If COVID-19 can mutate, then should we consider the possibility that the stability and longevity of the virus on surfaces reported in March 2020 and surmised based on earlier studies of similar viruses may have, as a consequence of mutation, changed.
If so, then the advice that a paper surface is safe after separated from possible virus source after some set period of time might no longer be applicable months after an investigation determining virus longevity on surfaces.
In that case, if the persistence of virus changes under the influence of mutation, testing of virus longevity on surfaces at a point of time can not be considered definitive, and so cannot be relied on indefinitely, but requires instead repeated testing over time.
Is that possible?
van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris DH. et al.
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1.
The New England Journal of Medicine.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
In connection with this question, and relating to paper banknotes:
The effect of temperature on persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on common surfaces
Published: 07 October 2020
Riddell et al. Virol J (2020) 17:145
In the Results part of the abstract: With initial viral loads broadly equivalent to the highest titres excreted by infectious patients, viable virus was isolated for up to 28 days at 20 °C from common surfaces such as glass, stainless steel and both paper and polymer banknotes.
The Economist magazine October 8, 2020 edition has an article: The digital surge. How the digital surge will reshape finance. Thanks to covid-19, more people than ever are banking and making payments online.There, the Economist notes: The shift from physical to digital payments this year has been dramatic. ... In America mobile-banking traffic rose by 85% and online-banking registrations by 200% in the month of April.
A friend of mine BP emailed me about the October 7 2020 article: ` I chuckled at the importance attached to bank notes. I haven't spent a hundred dollars in cash this year. ‘
Please follow attached article
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348548920_Persistence_of_SARS-CoV-2_a_new_paradigm_of_COVID-19_management
Please follow attached article
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348548920_Persistence_of_SARS-CoV-2_a_new_paradigm_of_COVID-19_management
Please follow attached article
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348548920_Persistence_of_SARS-CoV-2_a_new_paradigm_of_COVID-19_management
Robert Shour
Have a look at the following links.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590088920300457
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7695943/
Thanks!
- Badges
- Science method