Hello and welcome to what I think is probably the best episode you're going to listen to of the Slate Money Food specialseries. It is the best episode because we have the best

guest on and because we cover a whole range of topics, we booked Michael Spector to come on to

talk about GMOs. And of course, then this coronavirus crisis hit the planet. So we are going to

talk about GMOs. We're going to talk about coronavirus. We are going to talk about GMOs. We're going to talk about

coronavirus. We're going to talk about fluoride. We're going to talk about golden rice. We're going to

talk about a huge amount of stuff. But Michael, welcome. Thank you. Happy to be here. And introduce

yourself. Who are you? I am many things, but I'm a staff writer at the New Yorker and have been since 1998,

and I am also now an adjunct professor of bioengineering at Stanford University.

I can promise you this conversation is going to be fantastic.

So Michael Spector, coming up on Slate Money Food.

Okay, so Michael Spector, as the virus expert, I need to start with this. Are they communicated by people touching infected surfaces and specifically infected food?

Yeah, that is a way they can move, certainly on surfaces.

Infected food, it depends when and where and how long.

It's not the most usual route of transmission.

But yeah, a virus can live, this particular virus that we're all worried about at the moment

can live at least a few hours on a surface

and particularly on a metal surface like a doorknob. So that is one way to transmit it. It's not

the most obvious way. The most obvious way is sneezing into someone. Would you say that

a non-negligible number of people with the virus caught it by touching some surface and then

touching their mouths probably i mean it's a guess but yeah given the number of people who have

the virus it's inconceivable that a reasonable number of them didn't get it by touching a

contaminated service and then i don't think people understand how often they

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