{"id":56,"date":"2020-10-30T21:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=56"},"modified":"2020-11-11T12:59:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T17:59:28","slug":"can-i-catch-covid-from-smelling-the-roses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"Can I catch COVID from smelling the roses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Question:<\/strong> This may seem trivial and myopic, but is there any risk of transmission when petting the neighbor\u2019s dog or smelling their roses (which every passer-by does!)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer: <\/strong>When it comes to minimizing risk, the clearest communication I\u2019ve seen is from Japan<\/a> (Figure 1<\/strong>). We\u2019ve talked about risk many times, but remembering the 3 Cs \u2014 Closed spaces, Crowded places, Close-contact settings \u2014 is key for understanding which scenarios carry increased risk. There\u2019s not going to be guidance for every type of daily activity \u2014 like smelling the roses \u2014 so I recommend using the 3 Cs to guide your risk calculation. Passing some fragrant roses? Check the scene. Closed spaces? Crowded places? Close-contact settings? If yes, avoid. If not, enjoy! Here\u2019s a bit more information specific to the two examples you gave:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smelling the roses:<\/span> I assume the issue is that other people may have had their faces close up in the blossoms, breathing on the petals, and presumably depositing their germs. I assume these roses are outside, so we can be confident that the virus dies quickly thanks to sun, wind and inhospitable conditions. If the 3 Cs aren\u2019t present, we don\u2019t need to worry about airborne transmission. Instead the worry is fomite transmission \u2014 from petal to your face and into your body. This scenario seems exceptionally unlikely. If you have a whiff of concern (see what I did there), make sure you don\u2019t touch the flower with any part of your body, especially your face. If you avoid touching the rose with your nose, you\u2019ll avoid any lingering risk, ever small as it may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petting the puppy:<\/span> It\u2019s always good, in COVID times and not, to wash your hands after petting an animal. Please be sure to wash your hands after petting the dog. We have no evidence of any dog transmitting the virus to any human, and for more on animals and COVID-19, see CDC\u2019s guidance here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, one more important point. The risk of fomite transmission in most settings is very low. The virus cannot enter through your healthy skin. So, when we\u2019re talking about fomite transmission, we\u2019re generally talking about this type of scenario: virus particles are on your hands from having touched a germy surface; your hands then touch your mouth, nose, or eyes; the virus enters such an orifice and infects you. Thanks to the wonders of our skin, you don\u2019t need to stop touching things (or petting dogs) \u2014 with regard to fomite transmission, as long as you wash your hands well and avoid touching your face after you touch that thing (or that dog), you\u2019re well protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1. Avoid the 3 Cs (<\/strong>from Prime Minister\u2019s Office of Japan<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: This may seem trivial and myopic, but is there any risk of transmission when petting the neighbor\u2019s dog or smelling their roses (which every passer-by does!)? Answer: When it comes to minimizing risk, the clearest communication I\u2019ve seen is from Japan (Figure 1). We\u2019ve talked about risk many times, but remembering the 3 Cs \u2014 Closed spaces, Crowded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,147,18],"tags":[31,30,29],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","category-evergreen","category-transmission-routes","tag-3cs","tag-pets","tag-roses","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/october-30.png?fit=1037%2C1463&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}