Thinking About Coronavirus Can Transmit It to Others, Says New Study, So You May Have Infected Someone Just by Reading This
/
istockphoto.com
Merely thinking about the coronavirus can transmit it to others, an alarming new study suggests, so we may have infected others while writing this article—and you may have, as well, just by reading the headline.
In fact, the study says, you may still be spreading the virus this very moment, as you continue reading.
The study is set to appear in next week’s issue of The American Journal of Transmission, the Medical Kind (Not the Car Kind). The research builds on recent work showing that even talking can generate coronavirus droplets that remain airborne for eight to 14 minutes.
“I’d like to say we were surprised by these findings,” lead researcher Carrie White, PhD, told Dumb Runner by phone. “But at this point, nothing surprises us. This virus is a wily opponent.”
To conduct the study, White and her colleagues recruited 22 otherwise healthy adults and monitored them remotely for a week. Each day, the subjects were instructed to think about various things, such as bathtubs, parakeets, salad tongs, umbrellas, and the Teapot Dome scandal. On one randomly selected day, each subject was asked to think about the coronavirus or COVID-19.
On those days, the researchers found, confirmed cases of the virus spiked.
White said that face masks did not affect mental transmission of the virus, but speculated that a head mask, or “hat,” might lessen the effect, depending on what the head mask is made of. They plan to study that next, she said.
In the meantime, said White, the best course of action is simply not to think about the coronavirus.
“Put the coronavirus completely out of your mind,” she said. “Just stop thinking about it.”
“It being the coronavirus,” she added. “Stop thinking about the coronavirus.”
