Why are suits and substances used to sterilize surfaces (e.g., hydrogen peroxide, bleach) mentioned in relation stopping pandemics? Another post by one of the authors (ASB) of the current post mentioned a self-sterilizing suit regarding the same subject.
Suits and surface sterilization seems unnecessary, because that stuff does nothing to stop airborne transmission of viruses, which seems to be the only way that pandemics can ever arise.
Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd9149
Until the COVID19 pandemic, nearly everyone thought that most infectious respiratory diseases were transmitted via fomites and droplets, but unfortunately, this was based on shockingly poor evidence and assumptions. The material you’ve seen is based on this outdated consensus.
As I pointed out before, there are mechanistic reasons to doubt that pandemics can arise from fomite transmission.
However, if I squint hard enough, I can kinda, sorta see how young children in daycare might be infected by sharing toys and sticking their fingers up their noses. But stuff like that isn’t going to cause a pandemic.
In fact, the dominant (and most likely only) mode of transmission of rhinovirus is aerosols (at least in adults), not fomites. The same paper claims that fomites were unable to infect adults.
Anything that’s capable of causing a civilization-ending pandemic must be able to rapidly replicate in humans and spread via airborne transmission, and the only thing that can do that is viruses (and perhaps virus-like particles in the future).
The bottom line for me about fomites and surface contamination is that it’s probably a non-issue, and even if there’s something to it (which doesn’t seem too likely), it’s pretty easy to deal with without fancy tech: just wash your hands, disinfect surfaces, and wear a face covering to prevent face-touching.