Obviously I’m wondering this because I’ve heard COVID-19 can survive on plastic much longer than paper, and on paper much longer than certain metals.
What about those surfaces is able to keep the virus alive longer than the others?
In: Biology
Evolutionary specialization of the virus, some are better adapted to maintaining their moist shell, others less so. Viruses require hosts in order to breed, without the host providing an environment for it to replicate, it dries up and dies, it has no way on its own to protect and replicate itself outside of the host. So whatever moisture (containing viable virus) is ejected from a sick person is what it has to use for surviving outside before it (in terms of the virus) hopefully infects another host. Some surfaces promote drying out viruses more than others and their are a lot of other factors involved, which I’m not educated enough to go into. But basically, infected people eject a small droplet of moisture containing an active virus, and that moisture, while present is all that keeps it viable, when that moist shell is gone, the virus dries up and is no longer able to infect. Differences in surfaces and environmental factors (temperature and humidity), and the amount of moisture containing the virus, play out to determine the viruses longevity outside a host. Cardboard and paper are absorbant, plastic and steel are much less so.
Viruses need wet environments to remain intact and functional. A material with a lot of nooks and crannies or an absorbent material can that hold water gives e viral particles a wet place to stay intact and infectious. A smooth surface dries out quickly and thus the virus deactivates that much more quickly.
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