COVID MYTHS

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Myth!

You can’t catch COVID outdoors

Truth

It’s possible to catch COVID outdoors, especially in environments that are crowded, have poor air flow/stagnant air, and/or have lower humidity. Outdoor transmission can occur either through suspended aerosols (exhaled particles that hang in the air) or droplets (close-range transmission).

Myth!

Immunity from an infection lasts for three months

Truth

A COVID infection does not provide long-lasting immunity against subsequent infections. Due to unmitigated transmission, multiple variants are constantly circulating. The shortest empirically documented time between separate infections with two different variants is 16 days.

Myth!

You can’t catch COVID in an empty room

Truth

COVID is airborne, which means it hangs in the air like smoke. COVID aerosols can linger in indoor air for up to 3 hours. For example, if a contagious person uses a public bathroom, and you use that bathroom an hour later without a high-quality mask, you could catch COVID from them.

Myth!

COVID is a respiratory disease

Truth

COVID is a full body, vascular disease. It can infect and damage any and every organ system in the body. Unlike respiratory viruses like the flu, whose surface proteins attach to cells in the nasal passages, throat, and lungs, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, attaches to cellular gateways called ACE2 receptors, which are located throughout the body, including the linings of blood vessels.

Myth!

If I had Long COVID, I would definitely know

Truth

Long COVID encompasses a wide range of possible symptoms (200+) and conditions. A few known post-COVID conditions include T1 diabetes, high cholesterol, GI issues, hair loss, migraines, arthritis, vertigo, eczema, asthma, new allergies, and sleep apnea. While some LC symptoms, like fatigue, are more common than others, one person’s case of Long COVID can differ completely from another’s.

Myth!

Asymptomatic infections don’t have long-term effects

Truth

Between 32.4% and 44.1% of all COVID infections present without any noticeable symptoms, but these infections are not harmless (or non-contagious). SARS-CoV-2 can damage your body even if you don’t feel sick at all during your acute illness. Asymptomatic infections can cause Long COVID and other serious long term effects just like symptomatic infections can.

Myth!

COVID is just like the flu now

Truth

While influenza itself is a serious and sometimes deadly illness, it’s not comparable to COVID. Significantly higher death, hospitalization, and transmission rates, year-round surges, acute multi-systemic impacts, Long COVID/other long-term effects, longer contagious periods, the novelty of the virus (what will its impact be in 5 years? 10?), and more all make COVID more dangerous than the flu.

Sources

Analysis of a super-transmission of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant BA.5.2 in the outdoor night market | https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1153303/full?ref=okdoomer.io
Outdoor Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Respiratory Viruses: A Systematic Review | https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/223/4/550/6009483
Simple quantitative assessment of the outdoor versus indoor airborne transmission of viruses and COVID-19 | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935121004837#sec4
Risk assessment for long- and short-range airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, indoors and outdoors | https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/5/pgac223/6750016
Reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 by divergent Omicron sublineages, 16 days apart | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42770-023-01018-x
Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection Enhances Initial mRNA Vaccine Response with a Lower Impact on Long-Term Immunity | https://journals.aai.org/immunohorizons/article/7/10/635/265974/Prior-SARS-CoV-2-Infection-Enhances-Initial-mRNA
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 | https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
Coronavirus’s (SARS-CoV-2) airborne transmission | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047781/
Aerosol generation in public restrooms | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8060976/
ACE2: The Major Cell Entry Receptor for SARS-CoV-2 | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00408-020-00408-4
Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact | https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00299-6/fulltext
Multi-organ impairment and long COVID: a 1-year prospective, longitudinal cohort study | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01410768231154703
Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3
Long-Term Consequences of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9863678/
Long-COVID in patients with a history of mild or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection: a Nationwide Cohort Study | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36314555/
Percentage of Asymptomatic Infections among SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant-Positive Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9321237/
Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Age: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9935239/
Is Covid-19 Mortality “Like the Flu”? A Cumulative Death Rates Comparison | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10168500/
Risk of Death in Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 vs Seasonal Influenza in Fall-Winter 2022-2023 | https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749
A comprehensive map of the influenza A virus replication cycle | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1752-0509-7-97

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