{"id":2805112,"date":"2022-09-26T11:43:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2805112"},"modified":"2022-09-26T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:48:13","slug":"flu-touching-surface-2805112-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert: You won&#8217;t get the flu by touching stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re unlikely to get the flu from touching a surface, explains microbiologist Emanuel Goldman.<\/p>\n<p>In the early stages of the COVID-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/covid-caution-survey-2780022-2\/\">pandemic<\/a>, we thought the coronavirus was everywhere\u2014stuck to our cellphone screens, smeared on our mail, dangling from doorknobs, even clinging to our cereal boxes. But it wasn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Despite public health guidance suggesting surfaces be disinfected to stop the spread of COVID-19, the virus wasn&#8217;t significantly transmitted through inanimate surfaces and objects, what microbiologists call &#8220;fomites.&#8221; As with all respiratory viruses\u2014from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-vaccines-covid-19-2801162\/\">the flu<\/a> to the common cold\u2014transmission was and remains almost exclusively airborne.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/njms-web.njms.rutgers.edu\/profile\/myProfile.php?mbmid=egoldman\">Goldman<\/a>, a professor of microbiology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, was among the first scientists to challenge conventional wisdom by warning that hygiene theater\u2014overzealous disinfection of surfaces\u2014had &#8220;become counterproductive&#8221; for public health. In April 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed.<\/p>\n<p>Goldman is once again sounding the virus alarm. His recent work delves deeper into laboratory testing failures and advocates for a science-based path out of the pandemic. He will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.longdom.com\/respiratory\/scientific-program\">present his findings<\/a> at a respiratory disease conference in December in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Here, he answers questions about fomites and why we still need to wash our hands:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re unlikely to get the flu from touching a surface, explains microbiologist Emanuel Goldman. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8972,"featured_media":2805152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[185622,1360,8825],"class_list":["post-2805112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health-medicine","tag-covid-19","tag-influenza","tag-viruses","post_format-post-format-quote","university-rutgers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expert: You won&#039;t get the flu by touching stuff - 糖心视频<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn&#039;t one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Expert: You won&#039;t get the flu by touching stuff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn&#039;t one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"糖心视频\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/糖心视频\/143906865226\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"915\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@糖心视频News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@糖心视频News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ee215c702332b71c43b37471b8795fcb\"},\"headline\":\"Expert: You won&#8217;t get the flu by touching stuff\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":214,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"influenza\",\"viruses\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Health and Medicine\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\",\"name\":\"Expert: You won't get the flu by touching stuff - 糖心视频\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn't one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":915,\"caption\":\"\\\"During the first year of COVID-19, when everybody was masking, the rate of influenza infection went down to almost zero. If influenza was transmitted by fomites, that wouldn't have happened,\\\" says Emanuel Goldman. (Credit: Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Expert: You won&#8217;t get the flu by touching stuff\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/\",\"name\":\"糖心视频\",\"description\":\"Research news from top universities.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"糖心视频\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/logo-2018.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/logo-2018.png\",\"width\":332,\"height\":105,\"caption\":\"糖心视频\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/糖心视频\/143906865226\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/糖心视频News\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ee215c702332b71c43b37471b8795fcb\",\"name\":\"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24f23103e0e3a4a9e52c34e1f28738c7?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24f23103e0e3a4a9e52c34e1f28738c7?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/author\/rutgers-verbanas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Expert: You won't get the flu by touching stuff - 糖心视频","description":"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn't one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Expert: You won't get the flu by touching stuff","og_description":"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn't one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/","og_site_name":"糖心视频","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/糖心视频\/143906865226","article_published_time":"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":915,"url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@糖心视频News","twitter_site":"@糖心视频News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ee215c702332b71c43b37471b8795fcb"},"headline":"Expert: You won&#8217;t get the flu by touching stuff","datePublished":"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/"},"wordCount":214,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg","keywords":["COVID-19","influenza","viruses"],"articleSection":["Featured","Health and Medicine"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/","name":"Expert: You won't get the flu by touching stuff - 糖心视频","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg","datePublished":"2022-09-26T15:43:54+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-26T15:48:13+00:00","description":"There are still lots of good reasons to wash our hands, but avoiding the flu isn't one of them, says expert Emanuel Goldman.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/flu_touching_surfaces_1600.jpg","width":1600,"height":915,"caption":"\"During the first year of COVID-19, when everybody was masking, the rate of influenza infection went down to almost zero. If influenza was transmitted by fomites, that wouldn't have happened,\" says Emanuel Goldman. (Credit: Getty Images)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/flu-touching-surface-2805112-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Expert: You won&#8217;t get the flu by touching stuff"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/","name":"糖心视频","description":"Research news from top universities.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization","name":"糖心视频","url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/logo-2018.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/logo-2018.png","width":332,"height":105,"caption":"糖心视频"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/糖心视频\/143906865226","https:\/\/x.com\/糖心视频News"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ee215c702332b71c43b37471b8795fcb","name":"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24f23103e0e3a4a9e52c34e1f28738c7?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24f23103e0e3a4a9e52c34e1f28738c7?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Patti Zielinski - Rutgers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/author\/rutgers-verbanas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805462,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805112\/revisions\/2805462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2805152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}