Forget about Anthony Fauci’s forthcoming face-mask mandate. You might be wearing diapers or Depends if the latest “science” is used to set public policy.
Government ministers in England are peddling the idea that the China Virus spreads through flatulence. Whether this means Britons must give up their beloved baked beans for breakfast we are not given to know. We do know the theory was debunked a year ago, albeit by leftist mainstream media fact-checkers.
Last year’s manic run on toilet paper will be nothing compared to what might be ahead. Incontinent oldsters could be left high and dry. Parents with kids still in diapers might be rumbling with 25-year-old Fauci fans for the last box of Pampers at the local Walmart.
More COVID Craziness
The headlines over the paywalled story at England’s Telegraph put it this way: “Covid could be spread through flatulence, say ministers. Source says officials have read ‘credible-looking stuff’ on theory from other countries including Australia.”
The ministers saw “evidence of a ‘genomical-linked tracing connection between two individuals from a [toilet] cubicle in Australia,’” the Sun reported in its reprise of the Telegraph story.
The tabloid continued:
Also, there have been some “well-documented cases of diseases spreading through waste pipes during lockdowns in Hong Kong when the U-bend had dried out.”
However, government scientists have not confirmed the claim.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said he was not aware the virus can be spread by farting.
“We keep the latest scientific evidence under review,” the spokesman added.
Though the SARS-Cov-2 virus may be in “poo,” as the Sun delicately reported, clothing — particularly underwear — are a barrier to any virus that might spread through the emission of intestinal fumes.
Old Story
The flatulence claim, however, is old news. Last year, USA Today poo-pooed the idea in a fact check.
The Daily Star had reported that “doctors have made the foul discovery that farting could spread the Covid-19 disease — unless infected people wear pants which can protect this from happening.”
That story cited an authoritative Twitter thread by Australian doctor Andrew Tagg and included “references to multiple studies based on observations [in] China. One, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, describes how the virus was detected in the fecal matter of an asymptomatic child up to 17 days after exposure.”
A study in the Lancet showed the virus in more than half the fecal samples in 98 virus patients.
But Tagg confessed that “there’s not much science” on the subject, as USA Today’s fact-check put it:
He cited a medical experiment in which people passed gas into a petri dish, once with pants on and once without. The petri dish from the latter included gut flora, while the former did not.
“Perhaps SARS-CoV-2 can be spread through the power of parping — we need more evidence. So remember to wear appropriate PPE at all times and stay safe!” he tweeted, alongside a photo of someone wearing large pants.
The Daily Star article goes on to say that the China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this year that pants are an effective barrier against spreading the novel coronavirus through passed gas.
Despite all that, USA Today reported, “there’s no evidence that it’s happening.” A doctor at Vanderbilt University confirmed that gaseous transmission has “never been demonstrated.”
So you needn’t panic when the tub one stool over at the diner lets one loose after the blue-plate special. It might be silent. But it won’t be deadly.
Why Suggest It Again?
That truth raises the obvious question: Why are “government ministers” retailing a patently silly claim? Answer: to rekindle panic among the masses; to ready them for another lockdown.
With news that even the vaccinated contract the virus and might have to wear masks, public-health officials can no longer claim that masking and two pokes in the arm for everyone on the planet will stop the spread.
The bogus claim that flatulence spreads the virus will help cement the idea that the “new normal” isn’t just permanent masking and experimental vaccines. Instead people must be locked down and kept at home — and under the control of increasingly totalitarian government.
H/T: Ace of Spades