[stupac2]

I don't think this is entirely true. In general, coronaviruses have been shown to survive for up to two years at frozen or sub-frozen temperatures:



[tweet]https://twitter.com/TraceeGuibord/status/1243476221561843713?s=20[/tweet]



Here's some more from a more reputable source:



[tweet]https://twitter.com/COVIDResponse/status/1244042995101360133?s=20[/tweet]



This suggests as long as 9 days at room temperature, so I suspect much longer at freezing temperatures.

This suggests 72 hours max: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-...-surfaces/

It's possible that lower temperatures slow it down, but probably not by a factor of 300. Also keep in mind that there's a large difference between "there's detectable virons at time t" and "you can get sick from the remaining virons at time t". The study suggesting 72 hours is actually the latter.

In fact, according to this exhaustively researched guide to covid food safety there haven't been any documented cases of transmission from surfaces. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not particularly.

And, really, that makes sense. People keep talking about how transmissible this is, but it's still 1 case leading to at most 3.5 more. If it could linger for days on surfaces and anyone who touched that same surface was getting sick, that number would be a lot higher. Transmission is by far the most likely from sharing close quarters, where you're guaranteed to be breathing in the carrier's exhalations.

[stupac2]

I don't think this is entirely true. In general, coronaviruses have been shown to survive for up to two years at frozen or sub-frozen temperatures:



[tweet]https://twitter.com/TraceeGuibord/status/1243476221561843713?s=20[/tweet]



Here's some more from a more reputable source:



[tweet]https://twitter.com/COVIDResponse/status/1244042995101360133?s=20[/tweet]



This suggests as long as 9 days at room temperature, so I suspect much longer at freezing temperatures.

This suggests 72 hours max: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-...-surfaces/

It's possible that lower temperatures slow it down, but probably not by a factor of 300. Also keep in mind that there's a large difference between "there's detectable virons at time t" and "you can get sick from the remaining virons at time t". The study suggesting 72 hours is actually the latter.

In fact, according to this exhaustively researched guide to covid food safety there haven't been any documented cases of transmission from surfaces. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not particularly.

And, really, that makes sense. People keep talking about how transmissible this is, but it's still 1 case leading to at most 3.5 more. If it could linger for days on surfaces and anyone who touched that same surface was getting sick, that number would be a lot higher. Transmission is by far the most likely from sharing close quarters, where you're guaranteed to be breathing in the carrier's exhalations.