Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 March 6

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Science desk
< March 5 << Feb | March | Apr >> March 7 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.


March 6[edit]

Someone sneezing on your gazpacho[edit]

I'm not sure if I asked this before but....

If a waiter with flu sneezes on your gazpacho, can you then get flu from eating that gazpacho? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 11:25, 6 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but transmission is more common when the person sneezing is near to the other person when they sneeze, as opposed to here where the person sneezes on an object which the other person then comes into contact with. The flu is contained within droplets which come out of the waiter's mouth and nose when they sneeze, and you might get the flu if those droplets get into your mouth. See the CDC guidance here: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.159.150.105 (talk) 13:06, 6 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
in food making the makers cant even have their hands in their face... whenever it happens they need to wash their hands... in big production plants they even wear masks and wash their shoes now and then... :) --Homer Landskirty (talk) 15:21, 6 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! I had wondered about that for years. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:28, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Aside, I saw a sick sushi chef with plastic gloves, reach behind his clear plastic sneeze mask and pinch snot from his dripping nose, then return to making sushi. Yuk! I told him to change his gloves and he was annoyed with me for being so picky. As they say in New York, "Da noive!" Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:28, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That's the point at which you exit the restaurant, notify the health inspector, and never go back. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 06:48, 10 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I remember seeing a mouse study where a small dose of flu was usually asymptomatic, a larger dose caused symptoms, and a yet larger dose killed the mouse... alas, I lack the patience to look it up at the moment. Should though ... with a little thought we might put a bioweapon in the hands of every unlucky sap on the planet who catches the flu and makes use of it properly. :) Wnt (talk) 22:27, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]