Bad Wind: Odds of COVID Spreading Via Farts Considered by UK Government Ministers, Media Says

The hypothetical risk of COVID being spread through farting is reportedly “thought to be less” since undergarments and clothes below the waist would end up filtering the expelled particles when a person breaks wind.

Government ministers in the United Kingdom recently brought up the possibility of COVID spreading through flatulence, The Telegraph reports.

According to the newspaper, one minister said that they read "credible-looking stuff on it" from other countries, and mentioned evidence of a "genomical-linked tracing connection between two individuals from a [lavatory] cubicle in Australia."

The minister also reportedly spoke about "well-documented cases of diseases spreading through waste pipes during lockdowns in Hong Kong when the U-bend had dried out."

Another minister, however, pointed out to the newspaper that, with COVID being a respiratory disease, “transmission and shedding is mostly taking place through the mouth and actually mainly the nose."

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also stated that he wasn’t aware of any claims regarding the alleged spread of the coronavirus through flatulence, adding that they "keep the latest scientific evidence under review."

As the newspaper points out, while testing did reveal that SARS-CoV-2 can be present in feacal matter, the risk of spreading the coronavirus when farting is “thought to be less" due to undergarments and "clothes below the waist" effectively filtering “harmful particles” in a fashion akin to that of a face mask.

This subject was broached in April 2020 by Dr. Norman Swann in Australia who advised against "bare-bottom farting" while speaking on ABC’s "Coronacast" podcast