“Detectable and transmissible are not necessarily the same.”
And, as I’ve been (essentially) saying: “Transmissible and infectious are also not necessarily the same”.
In other words if you’re reasonably healthy and pick up a relative handful of virons, your immune system will wipe them out without you ever knowing it. You need a concentration large enough to overwhelm one’s immune system - which I why I don’t worry about it to the extent others may (such as by spraying their mail and their food). I’ll also get near others, providing that I’m upwind.
If the above wasn’t true, the virus would have infected at least half of the country in February, when we had no mitigation to speak of and we were importing sick people from Asia and Italy by the planeload.
Good point. I am pretty careful, as I have an elderly parent we care for to worry about, a daughter with asthma (tho’ not particularly problematic for her @ present), and I suppose I’m old enough to be at some risk. OTOH I figure that after a day in a sun-warmed car our mail is not likely to infect any of us. Ok, it’s gonna be colder the next few days: Maybe I’ll give that mail or packages 2 sunny days.