I’ve spent a few hours reviewing the literature on communion and infectious disease (not too hard when there’s so little out there!). I have significant concerns about how the studies are being applied to #COVID19. Buckle up for a long thread. #epitwitter #coronavirus #InfDz 1/n
First, thank you to @pathatch for the article that let me find others through citation tracking! Second, expect some #OpenAccess access ranting. 2/n
@pathatch Article #1 “The effects of receiving Holy Communion on health.” Lisa F Wolf. Study: 681 Volunteers filled out weekly surveys for 10 weeks on illness and if they took communion. No significant difference found in the rates of illness between communion and not. 3/n
@pathatch 1st No distinction between sippers, dippers, individual cups. Author states if no effect observed, wine-receiving methods would not matter. No. If we “study” Russian roulette and then only look at people using guns w/no bullets in them, we haven’t cleared Russian roulette. 4/n
@pathatch 2nd Volunteers only. Healthy volunteer effect? Population of most interest is the vulnerable. Risk of illness via consecrated wine may be heterogenous. The elderly and the healthy may have very different risks. This study doesn’t help address that. 5/n
@pathatch 3rd Seasonality. If we are interested in viruses like flu or coronaviruses, timing of the study is an important context. I’m not picking on their study design, but I hesitate to apply the findings more broadly without more context. 6/n
@pathatch Article #2 “Infections associated with religious rituals” by James Pellerin and @mike_edmond. Great review article! Their lit review has studies on bacteria but not viruses. Historic focus clealy on bacteria. 7/n ijidonline.com/article/S1201-…
@pathatch @mike_edmond Also, they helpfully describe Hobbs’ “Experiments on the communion cup” because that paywall on a 1967 study is totally raining ducats for the publisher. Anyway… that study reports wiping the rim with the linen cloth decreased bacterial counts by 90%. Nothing about viruses. 8/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond Important to note that this 1967 article does not appear to compare dipping and sipping. The folks citing it as evidence to choose sipping are making a leap just because they studied wiping. Potentially a dangerous leap. 9/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond Viruses are different. For other viral diseases, public health has raised concern about the shared eucharistic cup. See Prep for Prevent/Contain an #Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak: What Socio-cultural Practices May Affect Containment Efforts in Ghana? 10/n
journals.plos.org/plosntds/artic…
journals.plos.org/plosntds/artic…
@pathatch @mike_edmond Article #3 A 1998 CDC correspondence lists all the reasons we may not have detected an outbreak, notes there has never been a known outbreak associate with the communion cup, and then suggests the risk appears to be very low....11/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond …The statement has a lot of qualifications, and does not address a pandemic situation where everyone is susceptible. I think it’s a totally reasonable letter but not necessarily the right source for the moment. 12/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond Article #4 Sippers v Dippers. Anne LaGrange Loving’s A Controlled Study on Intinction: A Safer Alternative Method for Receiving Holy Communion is probably an amazing article to consider right now. If it weren’t behind a paywall, @nehaorg! #OpenAcess 13/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond @nehaorg The snippets I read seem to suggest the dippers win. If anyone has access to it and would like to reply with the study’s conclusion, that would be awesome. 14/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond @nehaorg Article #5 Cleaning. “Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents” by G. Kampf, et al. Their conclusion: Human coronaviruses can remain infectious on inanimate surfaces for up to 9 days. 15/n
journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-…
journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-…
@pathatch @mike_edmond @nehaorg ...Surface disinfection with 0.1% sodium hypochlorite or 62e71% ethanol significantly reduces coronavirus infectivity on surfaces within 1 min exposure time. We expect a similar effect against the SARS-CoV-2." 16/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond @nehaorg 2) In many Christian denominations, the doctrine of concomitance states that since Christ is indivisible, no one part of Christ's substance can be divided. Therefore, Christ is fully present in each element full. For everyone’s health, let’s just skip the wine. 18/n
@pathatch @mike_edmond @nehaorg Since this has gotten way more attention than I expected, here's another important topic. Coffee Hour is probably way more dangerous than communion. Here are my notes for a discussion later this week. #COVID19 #PublicHealth #coronavirus 
