Infections are a stochastic phenomenon, so while keeping your windows open won't protect your loved ones from you coughing on their faces, it may make a difference if you're attempting to isolate properly, or in other shared spaces.
Intuition is nice, but it can send you in the wrong path.
A typical case is what to do when it's cold. Most people prefer to close all the windows and turn on the heating to prevent getting cold and catching the flu or a common cold. (That is a very confusing name.) But we know they are caused by virus, so it's better to keep the windows as open as possible and use warm cloth. (Unless there is a blizzard outside.)
My mom is a nurse. One of her refrains when I was growing up was (and is) "Germs are real!"
People who previously didn't think anything of it will, for decades, be aware that if you're indoors and/or closer than six feet from a person who coughs, you will likely inhale airborne droplets that may contain viruses or bacteria from their lungs. I think this was known academically by some, and the risk was calculated and accepted by a few, but most people wouldn't have expected to inhale airborne droplets from someone they pass in a grocery store aisle.
I firmly believe the number of upper respiratory infections I have each year is directly proportional to the number of doors I have to touch throughout the day. Once worked for a well-known fruit company with a reputation for paranoia and secrecy, and because of that secrecy, everything was behind locked doors. Therefore, I constantly had to handle doors throughout the day to do anything at work. I'm pretty sure during those years I was on average sicker than ever.
We have the instinct to cough to clear our air passages even without pathogens in certain cases. The virus is triggering these thru some irritation in order to spread to other people.
A steady stream of cold air coming into your apartment might introduce an airborne virus from outside while the cold weather may hinder your immune system from doing its job as effectively? haha that sounds impossible! stupid grandma!
Every fall, winter and spring, I was able to watch as colds and the flu spread around indoors. People would be chastised for staying home with "the sniffles", too.
I've been in NYC every weekend over the last few months, and all members of my family/household has come down with a cold, cough, and congestion. My wife had it the worst (2 weeks), and I had it just for a day. For what it's worth, my wife works from home and didn't leave the house during those two weeks.
I hate not knowing if we've been exposed or if this is just a typical winter thing. We're all individuals with healthy immune systems, and I'll probably never know.
I had an argument with someone about colds, saying that external temperature favorited infection and they responded by saying the cause is more likely proximity in close warm spaces. I think our system is too complex for a tiny virus to manage to influence such behaviors.. but that's not impossible.
You don't have to be completely isolated to reduce your exposure and risk of exposure. Getting sick only once this winter is going to be netter for your health than getting everything going around all the time.
> Cold weather increases odds of catching a cold because it makes us more likely to stay indoors with other people, some of which may be sick and contagious.
I'm not convinced that's the case these days. The average city-dweller stays indoors with other people for most of the day, year round.
My personal theory is that in places like England in the winter people close the windows and cough at each other hence spreading colds, flus etc. In the summer they open the windows, go outside, the cough outputs blow away. I was recently in Bali and Singapore and noticed no colds in Bali where everything is outdoor and transport is mostly scooters and a lot in Singapore where everyone sits in aircon boxes - offices, busses etc. Also there's a fair bit of coronavirus in Singapore and not much it seems in Bali in spite of Bali having many Chinese tourists.
It has been postulated that when it’s cold, people tend to congregate inside. This behavior makes it easier, of course, for viruses to be spread from person to person
I've always thought this to be the case, and if true, then cold does increase the odds of catching a cold.
The important thing is that achy muscles don't spread disease (quite the reverse) but coughing does. So people with a recent bad cough should stay at home.
Covid is a problem at the moment but bacteria really aren't. Your chance to die from a bacterial infection randomly caught from someone in the street is minimal, and exposure boosts your immunity. And they are everywhere anyway.
You might get a cold for a few days but that's life.
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