Originally posted by: Rocky Kollmeyer
Fast: I am trying to envision this, how is any card game possible. Once touched the cards become a liability. Have they developed a card machine which will detox the cards after each deal. I just don't know? Poker chips, Dice? We may be moving towards Automatic Shufflers permanently.
My 2 cents (worth less now). "Surfaces" are said to be possible vectors of the coronavirus (like any virus or bacteria or other organism). A card is coughed on, how long does a microbe "live" on it? And is it actually lethal to a human? Blow on (or kiss!) those dice. Yikes!
We've seen articles about how long the virus survives on surfaces such as countertops, metals, clothing, etc. Those statistics have to be viewed in terms of how the data was gathered. Did they somehow transfer viral material onto the countertop, then swipe it and test it every few minutes/hours/days? More importantly. exactly WHAT was measured? Those tests can pick up degraded portions of microbes which may be dead enough to not be lethal to humans, but still reported in the news as 'alive' at however many minutes or hours.
Imagine how many cards (and chips and dice--especially dice!!!) have been the recipient of respiratory droplets through the years--common cold, flu, pneumonia. We know that flu starts shedding a day or two before symptoms.
How many times have we returned home from a Vegas vacation and come down sick almost on the way home in the car? We think we probably picked it up on the plane, though we never know for sure.
So, this is no help at all in answering your question. Life--it's a crapshoot any way you look at it.
