Led by the Vancouver Coastal Health medical microbiology team, researchers tested for virus-killing capabilities, including surrogates for COVID-19 and Noroviruses.
Two in five Americans (39%) still opt to use public transportation while they're sick, according to a survey about cleaning habits.
"Studies of microbial composition of train compartments may guide future public health strategies and public transit designs."
The most commonly found organism (46.9%) was bacteria. Despite some riders' fears of catching cold or flu from fellow straphangers, viruses were rare — they made up .032% of the samples. However, some seasonal viruses are RNA viruses, not DNA viruses, and they would not be identified with the collection methods used in the study.
A recent study conducted by the San Francisco State University's biology lab tested one BART seat and one San Francisco Muni seat at random. BART’s seat harbored several different strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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