For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has set the pace for our lives at all levels: work, activities, social life, but also love and sex life. While the vaccine offers us a glimmer of hope for resuming dates and other social gatherings, many questions remain unanswered about what we can and cannot do with the virus. Internet users put their questions to experts who answered them in The Guardian newspaper.
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Kissing or sex, which is more dangerous?
According to Professor Will Nutland, who works at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London and has written a little guide on how to have safe sex in the age of COVID-19:
Intuitively and pragmatically, if there is a lot of mouth-to-mouth contact, it will increase the risk.
Dr Eleanor Draeger, a specialist in sexual health and HIV, explains that there is still a lot we don't know about how the virus is transmitted.
If I talk about where the virus is, that might help: it can be found in saliva, in semen and in poo ... Ebola has remained active in semen for six months; it is not a sexually transmitted disease, but can be transmitted sexually.
Is oral sex safer?
Another question on the minds of Internet users is whether oral sex is safewith COVID-19. For Dr Draeger, nothing is less certain.
If you are going to have sex with someone, body fluids will touch other body fluids. Not exchanging saliva will reduce the risk of contracting or spreading COVID, but will not remove the risk.
Clearly, no matter how much sex you have, there is always a risk of contracting the virus, even if you don't kiss your partner. So always be vigilant!
