You're in a confined space, breathing the same air as other people. Also, given the frequent traffic of elevators, consider what you may breath in from previous occupants. This sounds risky to me. I hate touching elevator buttons during normal times. I'd wear masks and gloves.

> My understanding is that it hasn’t been shown for elevators. I think ...

Where are you getting this understanding? You are asking for evidence while providing none yourself...

Well the absence of anything is the default, so the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. I had read that somewhere in studying transmissions in NYC where elevators are common. I don’t remember where, it was a while ago.

> Well the absence of anything is the default, so the burden of proof is on the person making the claim.

I'm not sure the concept of "burden of proof" is helpful in a collaborative fact-seeking discussion. It seems more relevant to adversarial debates and trials.

It really depends on what the potential hazards are for the claim being correct versus the claim being incorrect. If the claim is that you can't get it from sharing an elevator, I would say the hazards if that claim is wrong are much greater than if that claim is correct. So, from a risk-management perspective, without any evidence, it's much better to assume that you can get COVID-19 from sharing an elevator until enough evidence accumulates to demonstrate that you can't. If you assume you can, the worst that happens is that you wait for another elevator. But if you assume you can't and you actually can, then you get COVID-19.

If I live in a high-rise, then there are large problems in avoiding elevators that could be worse. If all residents were to use stairs, aside from cardiac difficulties of some, mobility issues, risks of falling when carrying large loads, etc, there’s also going to be great amounts of aerosols generated by the huffing and puffing of many people using the stairs all day long (possibly in close proximity for multiple people going up at the same time). This could be a far larger vector as you’d be in the stairwell longer than you’d be in an elevator (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/public-health-... suggests 15 minutes of exposure needed).

It’s not clear that “avoid elevators” is universally less harmful. Also given the 15 minutes suggested it’s not clear that elevators by default pose a risk, and the large numbers in use in the world make it surprising if they are indeed a major vector but are otherwise undocumented or not part of suggested guidelines thus far.

I’m asking for evidence which shows they are indeed a risk factor, which should also hopefully take into consideration mask usage and number of stories. This would be extremely useful for people to factor in if they need to move, for example.

A recent article in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal details how a large COVID-19 outbreak in China was traced back to one asymptomatic individual who infected a neighbor when they used the same elevator in their apartment building — though they were not in the elevator at the same time.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/9/20-1798_article

There is a lot of evidence that close quarters, inside contact is very risky for transmission; every country in the world is operating under that assumption, indeed most are passing laws based on this. There is zero reason to believe that elevators ... both close quarters and inside would some how be an exception.

You've claimed that elevators are an exception to the established guidelines without evidence and are now claiming that that other, well evidenced, claim some how needs additional support to be applied to elevators.

Because it’s not just distance but time, often being suggested to be 15 minutes: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/public-health-...

Yes I heard planes as well surprisingly safe relative to choir practice. Environments where lots of droplets are created are less safe...

My understanding is that planes have very effective air filtration and movement systems. Choir practice likely would not, and involved people generating aerosols continuously.

I wonder how safe it is to queue at an airport, walk to the plane on a ramp among 100 yawning, coughing others, and reverse that process on the other side.

It may negate the safety of the actual airplane trip, or it may not.

planes have two things going for them: good air circulation with filtration, and mask-wearing is well enforced.

No evidence, just caution.