It's interesting that the "Environment" section mentions this in passing:
> Food comes mainly from packets or tins [...] There is a daily bread bake, and special occasions merit the thawing of a small amount of meat from a -20 C. freezer or from an ice cave in the nearby glacier.
Then in the "Discussion" section:
> The occurrence of a common cold during isolation, when the chances of introduction of new infection from the outside are virtually nil, implies that in some way virus persisted, either in the environment or in the men
It then goes on to suggest animal reservoirs as a potential cause, as well as inanimate objects and that a virus "might have persisted in the respiratory tract of one or more men".
But one of these packets of meat being opened and thawed isn't mentioned as a potential cause. I could find a couple of papers claiming that viruses survive for months or even years in food. Mystery most likely solved without the need for hitherto unknown or unlikely transmission vectors.
That seems to me to obviously be the most likely cause. Someone sneezed on or otherwise contaminated a packet of meat that was then frozen and thawed months later.
These people aren't truly "isolated" in the sense that they're going through a continual process of opening time frozen time capsules from the past.
One of the papers that cite this one (published in the same year) discusses such "time capsule" effects, although not with food, but from opening presents kept in storage, unpacking stored clothing etc.[1]
Sanjay Gupta was talking on CNN (I know, not the most reputable source) and at one point flat out said "If a cook in the kitchen of a restauraunt you're ordering from has covid19 and sneezes on your food, it won't get passed on to you, since this is not a food borne illness".
I was quite shocked to hear that.
I'd be very curious to see what actual science says about food as an infection vector.
I have recently watched two of Gupta's videos about grocery shopping and disinfecting groceries, and they were light entertainment, with very little practical value.
There can be little difference between the virus reaching your lips by coming in contact with recently handled food or your hands. Restaurant food is absolutely an infection vector, we're just in the phase where we pretend it not to be for economic reasons.
Wipe or wash groceries properly, not like in his videos, and stay away from food that was recently in contact with people outside your household and that cannot be properly cleaned, such as fast food.
I for one hate this “no evidence” phrase that people are using.
Sure, there are no double blind, placebo controlled randomized studies looking at that.
Also, because of the respiratory nature of the spread of coronavirus, it would be really hard to tease out someone who got it from food or food packaging.
However, Corona virus isn’t the only virus that we no about. We know Hepatitis A can spread in the food. We know Norovirus can spread in the food. Talk about how coronavirus is different that makes you think that spread is unlikely. Also, If you don’t have any idea, say “we don’t know”.
But scientists and doctors use “currently we do t have evidence of” to avoid making a call. Then when lay people see that statement, 9 times out of 10 they take it to mean that “scientists think that you can’t get coronavirus from food.” When the statement is saying no such thing.
But “currently, there is no evidence of” needs to go. Experts need to step up to the plate and give their expert opinion. If there are no direct studies say so and then use your knowledge of various viral protein and related viruses and food conditions, etc to give an actionable recommendation.
I saw this with the question of masks. Experts hid behind “no evidence that masks prevent infection”. Yes the double, blind placebo co trolled studies are lacking, but medical knowledge suggests that reducing the number and spread of infected dropplets is probably a good thing, and given that wearing a mask is a very safe intervention unlikely to cause side-effects, masks should probably have been recommended from the start. The Asian cities where wearing masks is more cultural seemed to have fared a lot better.
In the midst of a pandemic, I think for a lot of questions the null hypothesis should be that corona virus can be transmitted by this, and I should have evidence with 95% confidence that it cannot be.
Thus, a phrase “no evidence of” makes we worried about whatever they are discussing.
Yes, the citation of "currently no evidence of X" as if it meant "good evidence of NOT_X" is just the sort of thing that demonstrates that those who support policies of silencing "misinformation" are no better informed that the rest of us.
I get the impression it's a widespread attitude that you can be "scientific" without being honest about what prior probability you assign to anything. And by "honest", I mean that it exists, so you must disclose; you can't evade.
This may be the essence of what raises my hackles every time someone says trust the experts.
The above study seems to imply that a gastro based infection of COVID is linked to mild symptoms though since cells in the digestive tract have far fewer ACE2 receptors compared to the respiratory system. So maybe it's the best way to catch the disease?
The digestive tract doesn't need to be infected to be effected. AFAIU, in some cases non-infectious viral particles (i.e. non-viable segments floating around in your body) have evolved to make you cough and sneeze through irritation, so it would be unsurprising if in some people they irritated other tissues or possibly even effected gut flora.
If this is in fact the case, then fecal material wouldn't necessarily be a transmission vector. Although it could be; it could be a vector even if the irritation was not by infection.
If we could somehow confirm that most (>95%) of gastro based infections result in mild symptoms, I wonder if that would be one way (although not a great way) to "immunize" the public vs a vaccine? Swallow the pill containing the virus and let it run its course to develop immunity?
This general strategy is called inoculation, or variolation.
It is, indeed, not a great way to immunize the public, as the patient becomes contagious, and can pass on full-blown infection to other people. It's also dangerous in its own right; 'mild' infections can progress to full-blown infections.
If the risk could be reduced 10-100X it may be worth consideration. I could imagine one of the crazier/more desperate countries trying this in order to get ahead long term (North Korea?).
At the same time, guidelines say not to share food. So either that guideline is superfluous for covid, or the government just wants people to keep ordering takeout despite it being dangerous. Given their record so far, I won't be ordering takeout till after the pandemic, especially given the amount of restaurant workers who go to work sick and the relative lack of cleanliness in restaurants in general.
I think that's reasonable. Simple viruses like this inactivate quickly at room temp. So the less handling the better. Soap/detergent also kills these types of viruses. You don't need medical grade sterilization.
> Food comes mainly from packets or tins [...] There is a daily bread bake, and special occasions merit the thawing of a small amount of meat from a -20 C. freezer or from an ice cave in the nearby glacier.
Then in the "Discussion" section:
> The occurrence of a common cold during isolation, when the chances of introduction of new infection from the outside are virtually nil, implies that in some way virus persisted, either in the environment or in the men
It then goes on to suggest animal reservoirs as a potential cause, as well as inanimate objects and that a virus "might have persisted in the respiratory tract of one or more men".
But one of these packets of meat being opened and thawed isn't mentioned as a potential cause. I could find a couple of papers claiming that viruses survive for months or even years in food. Mystery most likely solved without the need for hitherto unknown or unlikely transmission vectors.
That seems to me to obviously be the most likely cause. Someone sneezed on or otherwise contaminated a packet of meat that was then frozen and thawed months later.
These people aren't truly "isolated" in the sense that they're going through a continual process of opening time frozen time capsules from the past.
One of the papers that cite this one (published in the same year) discusses such "time capsule" effects, although not with food, but from opening presents kept in storage, unpacking stored clothing etc.[1]
1. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/c...