ArticleMedical hypotheses2021
Why does SARS-CoV-2 survive longer on plastic than on paper?
Article in Medical hypotheses, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Shared sanitation facilities and risk of respiratory virus transmission in resource-poor settings: A COVID-19 modeling case study.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2025Article
- Copper-Modified Cellulose Paper: A Comparative Study of How Antimicrobial Activity Is Affected by Particle Size and Testing Standards.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Quantifying aerosol and microbial exposure of healthcare workers in endoscopy suites: a time-based study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Comparative survival of five porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus strains on six fomites.Veterinary world · 2024Article
- Review of factors affecting virus inactivation in aerosols and droplets.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Review
- Stability of Feline Coronavirus in aerosols and dried in organic matrices on surfaces at various environmental conditions.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Worldwide fight against COVID-19 using nanotechnology, polymer science, and 3D printing technology.Polymer bulletin (Berlin, Germany) · 2023Review
- Antiviral activity of salt-coated materials against SARS-CoV-2.Access microbiology · 2023Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic reveals the wide-ranging role of biobanks.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Analysis of the community behavioural patterns in management of household plastic waste due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka.Case studies in chemical and environmental engineering · 2022Article
- Theoretical investigation on the interactions of microplastics with a SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragment and their potential impacts on viral transport and exposure.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces and relevance to the food industry.Current opinion in food science · 2022Review
- Rapid SARS-CoV-2 disinfection on distant surfaces with UV-C: The inactivation is affected by the type of material.Journal of photochemistry and photobiology · 2022Article
- Questioning ZnO, Ag, and Ag/ZnO nanoparticles as antimicrobial agents for textiles: Do they guarantee total protection against bacteria and SARS-CoV-2?Journal of photochemistry and photobiology. B, Biology · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 detection in hospital indoor environments, NW Iran.Atmospheric pollution research · 2022Article
- Increased personal protective equipment consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: An emerging concern on the urban waste management and strategies to reduce the environmental impact.Journal of hazardous materials advances · 2022Article
- Possible processes and origin-tracing methods of "human-to-item" contamination and "item-to-human" infection with SARS-CoV-2.Biosafety and health · 2022Article
- Antibacterial and Angiogenic Poly(ionic liquid) Hydrogels.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Effects of environmental parameters and their interactions on the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 in North Italy under different social restrictions. A new approach based on multivariate analysis.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Porous surfaces: stability and recovery of coronaviruses.Interface focus · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Covid-19 coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is inactivated much faster on paper (3 h) than on plastic (7 d). By classifying materials according to virus stability on their surface, the following list is obtained (from long to short stability): polypropylene (mask), plastic, glass, stainless steel, pig skin, cardboard, banknote, cotton, wood, paper, tissue, copper. These observations and other studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may be inactivated by dryness on water absorbent porous materials but sheltered by long-persisting micro-droplets of water on waterproof surfaces. If such physical phenomenons were confirmed by direct evidence, the persistence of the virus on any surface could be predicted, and new porous objects could be designed to eliminate the virus faster.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.