Could someone regularly post some useful information such as.....
What is the incubation period from exposure until symptoms show?
When does the virus shed and when are you contagious?
Incubation period from exposure to symptoms—I believe it ranges from a couple of days to as long as six weeks, with the norm in the one to two week range (but a lot of variation).
I just posted a link on the women who infected five people before she showed symptoms—it looks like you can infect someone as least a few days before showing symptoms—again probably a lot of variation.
It’s all in the threads.
If I remember correctly,
1. Incubation is from a few days to 14.
2. Shedding is almost immediate, and starts before you are symptomatic. And a lot of folks stay shedding and asympomatic the whole time.
Basically there's a rather wide range of time from exposure to contraction to symptoms showing which depends on a whole bunch of variable factors. AFAIK, the range tends to run from three days to thirty days. And it has repeatedly been shown that asymptomatic individuals can infect others for as long as 28 days. The upper limit is not known yet.
The generally accepted period from exposure to showing symptoms is one to four weeks. There are lots of individual exceptions.
The virus is shed by droplet production via coughing and sneezing (range of 3-6 feet), by aerosols at ranges of an entire building spread by the ventilation system, and by touch with hands or skin loaded with tiny droplets. Plus the virus can be shed to inanimate objects (walls, floors, windows, ventilation ducts, doorknobs, supermarket cart handles, toilets, faucets, sinks, etc.) where others can contract it by touching those surfaces. Or, for ventilation ducts, by air blowing through them to create tiny droplets or aerosols. Look up the term "Fomite" on Wikipedia.
If you have symptoms, you are contagious. You can also be contagious without symptoms but no one yet has a clue when the contagious period starts for those people.
Pity the poor schmucks who have to clean public restrooms. They are almost certain to catch CoVid-19. If they're under 40, it will probably be a mild case. Public restrooms are basically death chambers for those over 60 because the viral loads in them, almost entirely due to fomites, will be enormous.