A report suggested by a doctor that the novel coronavirus, COVID19 can spread through farts has spread – quite literally – like hell fire and left people wondering whether the doctor’s theory is true.
Test reports suggested that the virus was present in the faeces of more than half of COVID-19 patients. While most people found the report hilarious, there were plenty of people alarmed at the thought.
However, China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention stated that pants can help in stopping the virus from getting transmitted through farts.
It also warned that if the infected patient is not wearing pants and releases a large amount of gas, then the other person who might take a sniff will be at risk.
The question was originally asked in 2001 when an Australian nurse asked an educator if farts could spread disease. To get to the bottom of the matter, Karl Kruszelnicki conducted an experiment where he took two petri dishes and asked two people – one wearing pants and the other naked bottom down – to fart on it. When the dishes were checked for later, it was observed that the person who wore clothes did not leave any bacterial residue on it. However, the second person left a thin layer of bacteria on the dish.
Kruszelnicki said that this was not a matter of concern as the bacteria that came out of farts was good bacteria and had a close relationship to lactobacilli, the same bacteria used in making curds.
When it comes to the coronavirus also, people keep forgetting that bacteria and viruses are two completely different living organisms. While bacteria can survive independently, viruses need a host to grow on. Viruses are also less developed than bacteria, as bacteria have both DNA and RNA, while viruses only have RNA.
