[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by Icarium81

And again, I'm not saying anyone spent the night in the rooms. Did ANYONE for ANY REASON go IN TO THE ROOM during those 17 days???? Is there a method of EXCLUDING the ventilation from specific rooms, highly unlikely. You're arguing minor base facts, without thinking of the entire ship.
Maybe the maid needed another blanket, I'll just pop into that empty room there.....

There were no overnight guest on the boat so the maid didn't need another blanket. And what "maid" in their right mind would say "I'll go get a blanket out of the quarantine room". Now your are making stuff up and not using your brain.

And simple logic tells you that 17 days if it did blow through the vent system means it was still alive for 17 days no matter what room it started.

This was research, not some 3rd grade science experiment, reported by the CDC. The ship had been emptied of passengers and the disinfecting and research was taking place. You don't do a total ship disinfection if patients with COVID-19 are still on board.

Use some common sense.

14 days was the time thought for isolation. It's no surprise this was done 14+ days after the subjects had disembarked.

[Blubaron79]

Originally Posted by 2000Z3M

if you are the only one in your car who cares?

that said, did you do this when h1n1 happened? 60 million had it and 12k died from it in the states alone.

And the science denier shows up. No, actually because H1N1 was 3 times less infectious, and we had a vaccine close to development. Almost forgot the lower mortality rate too.

[Onizukachan]

OP are you doing Uber/lyft/turo etc? If not don’t worry about it.

[CajunBMW]

It is plausible that the virus could be infectious based on that report, although that was not tested, so it is unknown. There have been several studies where genomic material has been found, but not necessarily infectious virus has been found. When they say traces, they took swabs and did qPCR and found evidence of viral genomic material, that in itself means the virus was present but says nothing about it being truly infectious material. Only the live viral particle is infectious, not the RNA. That being said the CDC guidelines for disinfecting surfaces is a good gold standard with the idea that virus hangs around for a few hours to a few days on surfaces, depending on the material. Of course never hurts to be safer than necessary. We follow the CDC protocol at our medical school and hospital. That is how we handle our hot lab when we get patient samples for diagnostic testing for SARSCOV2. We assume all samples are hot and treat according. For disinfection we use a number of different agents from 70% ethanol, to 10% bleach, to UV light. Honestly hand sanitizer and good old soap and water is what I do, unless we have some issues in the lab. Definitely stay safe.

[CajunBMW]

If you are worried you carried it from the store, work or other places to your car there are a couple of easy remedies. I keep a bottle of 70% ethanol in my car right now. If you wipe your wheel down with this 70% solution and let it sit for a few minutes (10 mins is ideal) you will be fine. Clorox wipes also work fine (this product is not the one with bleach in it). Again let it sit for a few mins. I then wipe mine down with some clean water and dry. I have had no issues. As stated by @sspade you can use VLR or any leather wipe.

[cmplaya]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

If the only person driving is yourself don't worry about it. The only way any virus was deposited was by you, and that means you're already exposed. I saw a guy driving down the street yesterday, alone in the car, wearing a mask. I don't know who he thought he was going to catch something from.

i wish...i work in a hospital in nyc so car must be valet parked by same dudes parking hundreds of other hospital workers cars...probably fuqqed

[Icarium81]

Can you not park your own car or are you unable to walk from your parked car to your job....

[cmplaya]

Originally Posted by Icarium81

Can you not park your own car or are you unable to walk from your parked car to your job....

i live 20 miles away and it is in the middle of NYC so no street parking, not an option. plus they curb rash one of my rims once every few months...part of the price of living and working here

[CajunBMW]

My points above are valid and would be protective. Unless there is aerosol present or you get direct aerosol from the attendant, the issue is virus deposited into your handles, seats, buttons, steering wheel, etc. That is what you want to protect yourself from. If you are that close to the front line, I would either use the solutions or methods I stated above and wipe down your car prior to getting in or have a clean pair of gloves to wear when in the car. I have a few masks and gloves with me. When I get out of the car and have to walk through the school to my cordoned off lab I don't touch anything except with a gloved hand. Once I am in my cleaned and locked down office I am good. Certainly goes without saying don't touch mucus membranes (eyes, mouth, nose) until washing your hands. I can park my own car, but as a virologist who works currently in a patient viral diagnostics lab in one of the other hotspots in the country, Louisiana, I know what you are going through. It is all about avoiding contact with that darn Coronavirus.

Also, if you can't avoid the virus, it is about keeping the infectious dose low. As we have seen, some patients are shedding so much virus it is frightening - based on this point it is very clear why the ER Docs and Pulmonologists, etc get so sick, they are exposed to so many viral particles initially that is probably overwhelms them too early. Stay safe.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by cmplaya

i wish...i work in a hospital in nyc so car must be valet parked by same dudes parking hundreds of other hospital workers cars...probably fuqqed

If I was in that situation I'd assume that the car is contaminated and I'd isolate myself from the car. That would be easy enough if there was enough protective gear, but we know there isn't, so yes, probably 'fugged'.

[CajunBMW]

It is true that you might be exposed no matter what you do. Certainly working in a hospital doesn't make things easy, but really if you can avoid aerosol spread, the rest is contact spread. Contact spread is easier to mitigate, but it does require extreme diligence. Good luck.

[garanadhav]

Originally Posted by undertaker

Any suggestions for Speed Test Scrabble Word Finder Solitaire high level disinfectants on the interior? Steering wheel, seats, console and dash, without compromising the interior material?

I saw a guy driving down the street yesterday, alone in the car, wearing a mask. I don't know who he thought he was going to catch something from.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by garanadhav

I saw a guy driving down the street yesterday, alone in the car, wearing a mask. I don't know who he thought he was going to catch something from.

Taking it off and on in car in between stops isn't smart as it gets any concentrated germs on your hands, which then go on your steering wheel and other car parts you touch.

[chiefneil]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

Funny how they found it 17 days later on the cruise ship surfaces.

I remember reading that report and being concerned. But since then all reports are that 24-72 hours seems to be the max period for viability.

Science is generally consensus-based over a long period of time based on weight of evidence. At this early stage maybe the virus is still viable after 17 days, but the more recent and weightier evidence says 24-72 hours.

And as others have mentioned, I didn’t see it clearly stated that the traces found after 17 days were still viable/infectious. When there’s conflicting reports, those details start to matter.

I’m only driving my car maybe once a week, so IMHO that’s plenty of time for my personal comfort level to believe any random hitchhiking virus in the car has died off. Anybody who’s not classified as essential that’s driving more often should ask themselves why they’re driving around so often.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by chiefneil

I remember reading that report and being concerned. But since then all reports are that 24-72 hours seems to be the max period for viability.

Science is generally consensus-based over a long period of time based on weight of evidence. At this early stage maybe the virus is still viable after 17 days, but the more recent and weightier evidence says 24-72 hours.

And as others have mentioned, I didn't see it clearly stated that the traces found after 17 days were still viable/infectious. When there's conflicting reports, those details start to matter.

I'm only driving my car maybe once a week, so IMHO that's plenty of time for my personal comfort level to believe any random hitchhiking virus in the car has died off. Anybody who's not classified as essential that's driving more often should ask themselves why they're driving around so often.

Actually there have been additional findings of the virus RNA found on surfaces much longer than what is stated in the guidelines.

BTW, did you miss the flip flop on the masks?

And are you aware that the masks now being suggested are filter only around 65% of the germs (only the very largest in size). There is a reason that N95 is what is needed in hospitals.

But you do what you feel to stay safe.

[CajunBMW]

I will tell you how we handle the virus and approach this from working with patient samples. So we assume everything is contaminated with the virus once we get patient samples, whether we collect them ourselves or they come from the hospital. For us most collections are performed by trained nursing staff. These nurses that collect the nasopharyngeal swabs wear N95 masks, full face shields, head protection, disposable gowns and footies. Once we get the samples we guess everything is hot and go from there. We only work with the samples in our hot room under approved and validated safety conditions. At the end of a shift we disinfect with 70% ethanol (isopropyl works fine too) or 10 % bleach, depending on the surface. For the hot rooms we have special UV lights to do room disinfectionsvtoo. We follow most of the normal CDC guidelines about how long the virus remains infectious on surfaces. Those reports about a few hours to a few days do usually represent the presence of infectious virus. For some of the normal benign coronaviruses there are some reports of virus remaining viable for more than a week. Other studies only detect the presence of viral RNA, so for those studies it is plausible that the virus under the right conditions could remain viable, but that is not yet known. The Coronaviruses in general are more stable than many enveloped viruses but a lot less than the noroviruses, which can last for months and months.

As pointed out above for working with live samples we only use N95 masks. Now walking around the Med school or hospital I will just wear a surgical mask; as long as no patients are around. The N95 as accurately pointed out is a better filtered mask and this is needed around live virus. Dose is a big deal, and this is why those Docs and nurses in the hospital can come down with severe disease despite being in some cases a lower risk group. Patients shed millions and millions of viral particles in each cough. We have crazy amounts of virus in some of our samples. I mean scary amounts. As a virologist I can see why this virus sheds so easily.

The surgical masks do work for two reasons. They lower spread from asymptomatic shedders, so these folks will shed less virus to to the public. Wearing the mask also lowers the risk of seronegative naive hosts from getting infected . As pointed out they are not designed to prevent all particles from passing through, but do lessen risk and really help when social distancing rules are followed. This is the theory realized by many of the Asian countries and why they continue to wear masks. It is certainly not the only reason, but one of the many reasons for why South Korea has been very successful with the control of the virus.

Good luck and stay safe.