“There have been 0 documented cases of COVID-19 transmission via fomites. Zero.”
False. It would be the only virus that’s never spread through anything but breathing through the nose and mouth. It’s a foolish assertion. Use some common sense.
“Conclusions We infer that the ship central air conditioning system did not play a role, i.e. the long-range airborne route was absent in the outbreak. Most transmission appears to have occurred through close contact and fomites.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.09.20059113v1
“SARS‐CoV‐2 is spread through close contact with infected individuals and by droplets released into the air during coughing, sneezing and talking. In addition, fomite spread is an important feature, which is not surprising, because it had played a central role in the SARS 2003 epidemic. However, fomites have also proven important during other outbreaks.5, 10 Bed curtains, restroom fixtures, and countertops touched are good examples.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dth.13544
“Prolonged Infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in Fomites”
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/9/20-1788_article
“Cluster A. A woman aged 55 years (patient A1) and a man aged 56 years (patient A2) were tourists from Wuhan, China, who arrived in Singapore on January 19. They visited a local church the same day and had symptom onset on January 22 (patient A1) and January 24 (patient A2). Three other persons, a man aged 53 years (patient A3), a woman aged 39 years (patient A4), and a woman aged 52 years (patient A5) attended the same church that day and subsequently developed symptoms on January 23, January 30, and February 3, respectively. Patient A5 occupied the same seat in the church that patients A1 and A2 had occupied earlier that day (captured by closed-circuit camera) (5). Investigations of other attendees did not reveal any other symptomatic persons who attended the church that day.”
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6914e1.htm
Their work was to establish whether transmission was long range. They established it was short range. They did not establish it was fomites. We already know that respiratory droplets are the primary culprit and aerosols are a less common, but still important culprit. Still zero cases demonstrating anything other than those two modes of transmission.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dth.13544
This is a dermatologist writing an article in May 2020, before fomites transmission was determined not to play any major role (or literally any known role whatsoever) in transmission. The dermatologist is parroting what the CDC and WHO were saying at the time based on lab work demonstrating that seemingly viable SARS-CoV-2 virions could survive on surfaces for a period of time. Still zero documented cases of fomite transmission.
“Prolonged Infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in Fomites”
This was laboratory work looking at the stability of the virions in a laboratory controlled setting. From that article: "Accordingly, it is plausible that fomites infected with SARS-CoV-2 play a key role in the indirect transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)." In other words, in theory, it's possible. Sure. Still zero documented cases of fomite transmission.
"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6914e1.htm"
Again, this is speculation only. From the article: "the possibility of indirect transmission through fomites by presymptomatic persons is also a concern. Objects might be contaminated directly by droplets or through contact with an infected person’s contaminated hands and transmitted through nonrigorous hygiene practices." The article is focused on pre-symptomatic spread; not fomites in particular. So again, zero documented cases of fomite transmission.