Prompt Cast
The Real Threat of COVID-19: People, Not Surfaces
TLDR Scientists have found that the risk of getting sick from touching surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus is unlikely, as the virus is usually dead on those surfaces. The real threat of COVID-19 lies in being around people who have the virus, not in being around surfaces that may have the virus on them.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The podcast discusses whether we should be more or less scared about the coronavirus, specifically focusing on the topic of the virus on surfaces.
01:04
Scientists have found that getting sick from touching surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus is unlikely, as the virus is usually dead on those surfaces.
02:02
The real threat of getting COVID-19 seems to be being around people who have the virus, not being around surfaces that may have the virus on them.
02:59
It is possible to get the coronavirus twice, but not very likely, based on a study in Qatar that found only 54 cases of reinfection out of over 130,000 people who had tested positive for COVID-19.
04:10
Reinfection with COVID-19 is rare, with a risk of only 0.04 percent, and the severity of the second bout of the virus varies among individuals.
05:10
Testing in the lab showed that antibodies and other immune system components in people's blood reacted to the coronavirus spike protein, suggesting that reinfection with COVID-19 is possible.
06:18
Overall, the results are hopeful and the hosts are less scared of the coronavirus, but they are still concerned about the increasing numbers of cases.
