I often get confused with the information available about Covid-19 virus. My views are indicated in this article.

1. Covid-19 Virus: A Confusing Virus
Whatever we know, whatever we are being told, and whatever we understand
about Covid-19 is making me more and more confused.
We knew about PM10 and PM2.5 earlier. PM10 (Particulate matter of around 10
microns) settles down in few hours. PM2.5 (Particulate matter of around 2.5
microns) may take few days to settle down. OK. That I can understand. The
smaller is the particle, the more time it takes to settle down. According to this, this
particle- the Covid-19 virus which is having a typical size of 120 nanometers
(nearly 20th compared to PM2.5) should stay in atmosphere for much longer times.
Through air, it may spread and infect more and more people. But it is not
reportedly spreading this way. Why?
We are than told that alcohol, in diluted concentration cannot kill (sorry, I am using
kill, which is not technically true, but you understand what I want to say) virus. Still,
we are using a lot of alcohol based sanitizers to avoid its spread.
Sometimes, we are told that moisture is needed to kill the virus, but I cannot
understand when the virus enters inside our body, how it protects itself from
moisture, which is present in our body. Some say, it cannot tolerate dry weather. If
that is the case, why it is spreading in relatively drier areas?
We are being told to wash our vegetables in saline water, and no authentic
information or study indicates that salt can kill this virus.
We are being told to wear masks, not always the typical N95 type; which has the
pore size double than virus dimensions, but also made of cotton, cloths, non-
wovens etc. These materials have much and much and much higher pore sizes
compared to the virus dimensions. Virus can easily pass through as a human can
pass through a 10-20 meter wide gate.
We are being told that the virus stays on different surfaces for different times. On
copper- 4 hours, on stainless steel- 2-3 days, on glass- 4 days, on wood- 2 days,
on paper and tissue paper- 3 hours, On cloth- 2 days, on cardboard- 24 hours. But,
there is no information how and where this study was actually conducted.
Surprisingly, nobody tried to identify why the virus stays on copper for much
shorter time than on stainless steel or glass? What imparts paper the property that
the virus can stay for 3 hours while on wood it stays for 2 days?
We love stainless steels. We love chrome plating on metal pieces and objects. Can
copper be electroplated on hand rails, door knobs and lift interiors? Ask any
mechanical engineer. That's not a big job. But we are not working to find out what
materials need to be promoted to protect ourselves from Covid-19 and other

2. upcoming viruses. We just want to save ourselves using complex chemicals, drugs
and this and that.
As any other person, we all are following lockdown, staying at our homes, trying to
acquire new skills in different fields, thinking about our lives, our life goals,
evaluating our priorities before the virus attack and impact of virus on our revised
priorities etc. As any other person, we are becoming more religious (-of course not
the fanatic one), more and more nature friendly, more respectful to the
environment- air, water and land. We all know that the sky is clearer now, but
around and about the virus, the clouds of confusion are still confusing me.
Confused….
D K Singhal
deveshksinghal@gmail.com
April 25, 2020
D K
Singhal
Digitally signed by D K Singhal
DN: cn=D K Singhal
Date: 2020.04.25 21:20:56
+05'30'
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