I’m really not sure what to believe here... for months the CDC has been recommending people to wipe down surfaces, groceries, etc. to prevent the spread. I’ve spent few hundred of dollars on Lysol and Clorox wipes bc I couldn’t get them in store and got them when everyone was price gouging.
Now recently they are saying it’s nearly impossible to get the virus from touching a surface?
I go grocery shopping weekly for myself and my elderly grandmother and neighbor. I’ve gone through about 4 containers of Lysol wipes to wipe every single item down and rebag before I would bring into my house or drop off. I was being overly precautious bc my daughter has had respiratory issues since 2mo old and has asthma and my grandmother/neighbor are elderly-high risk. With the “new” news from them, am I wasting my time to continue?
The article I read (
Here) states the CDC has been saying this for a while, however this is newer news to me. Just wondering what everyone else is doing and thoughts if I should continue my process? Feel like I should mention I live about 45min from Boston, Ma where it’s still pretty bad. Numbers of deaths are slowly declining, but we are still having a high number of new cases everyday.
Oh wow, that's really interesting. The advice in the UK is cardboard/paper is low risk and plastic/metal has the potential for the virus to remain viable for around 3 days.
I just watched an interview with one of the scientists advising the UK government and he was saying they don't know exactly how long the virus sticks around. Lots of the advice given to start with was based on what they know about 'flu, but obviously that's a different virus. He explained the test for viral particles is very sensitive so it might pick them up on a surface after a couple of days, but that doesn't mean they are viable/"alive". He was very clear that they don't know yet.
The article you linked to is really fascinating. They say that
most transmission is person to person, which I fully believe. But I'm still sanitizing! if I get groceries delivered they can come in containers where I might use the food without cooking it - for example a bag of salad (e.g lettuce). Yesterday I had some ready made falafels arrive and took the lid off the plastic and ate them after
sanitizing the container. With both examples I'd sprayed down the plastic with a mist of 70% isopropryl alcohol. Otherwise my understanding is that I'd risk getting the virus on my fingers when opening the container... next I'd reach inside to get food to eat. Somewhere along the way I'm sure I'd touch my face.
Right now I'm being much more cautious with anything I'm going to ingest, because it goes near my face. If I get some mail then it sits unopened for 24 hours, but I'm less worried because I'm not going to sniff the envelope or eat the letter ;-) However, I do wash my hands after.
Everything else that comes into my house is treated in one of the following ways:
- 70% alcohol spray (expensive, but very effective and evaporates without leaving chemicals behind)
- dilute spray of bleach (cheap, but not suitable for everything and leaves residual bleach)
- washed with soap and water (cheap, but only suitable for things like raw fruit and veg)
- UV-C (ultra violet light, band C) - this is a bit of an experiment, inspired by something IceWizard said recently... placing materials in a room and irradiating with UV-C. This has to be done multiple times so I can turn around the objects and make sure they get blasted from all sides. Safety note: UV-C is not the UV you get in a tanning booth (it is closer to x-rays), you do not want to be in the room with the UV tube is running (it can cause skin burns, eye damage, skin cancer, etc). It produces lots of ozone gas and its best not to breath too much of that if you can avoid it, so needs ventilation. As with other UV it can bleach the color of things in the room - best done in your garage. UV can over-ripen fruit and veg and turn it to mush, so test on a small amount! Good for bottles, cans, Amazon parcels you don't want to get wet...
So those are my methods and until the NHS in the UK advises differently, I'm continuing to disinfect groceries, even if it is a less likely means of getting COVID-19 than face to face.
BTW If anyone decides to try UV-C please do your research, I'd hate for any forum member to be injured. Also ebay is full of products claiming to be germicidal UV LEDs, but most are fake. To make UV-C actually requires a glass tube. Real ones are about $20, which is about the price of 1 litre of isopropyl alcohol in the UK right now. Feel free to drop me a PM before spending your hard earned cash or injuring yourself.
How to tell what is true??
The 'news sources' change daily!!
The most recent I heard from Drs on a town hall meeting on TV is that the 6 feet apart distance is not far enough! More like double that amount!! Impossible to do...............
And with all of the recent riot activity - I am very afraid we will see a huge increase in cases. I pray that does not happen. But science surely speaks to it that it will.
God Bless All
Slick
It’s so hard to tell, and like barq I’ve been taking those same type of precautions for months now, but that’s just 1 article of many that are now imply the CDC and FDA are changing their findings. Another source is from the
NY Post also stating people are not contracting from surfaces and “there’s no need to wipe down groceries.” I believe it’s mainly spread person to person too via air particles, but yeah I probably will still continue to wipe them down bc you can just never be too careful. I hate that it’s the “new normal.” Not just for the virus either- at Stop n Shop a few towns over from me a man was literally opening bottles of soda etc and urinating in them. He is now banned from all their stores. You just never know what people have touched or are doing before you touch the groceries, even grosses me out to think how many people still don’t wash hands after going to the bathroom... and I still see it. It would be nice to know for sure how long it lives, but I guess still to early be 100% sure about it.
(06-01-2020, 10:05 AM)fishfarmer Wrote: [ -> ]The CDC, WHO, and any other "experts" who put out information, put out a lot of information!!! Our TV news (which) I don't watch as well as news on radio and computer, are then able to cherry pick the information that fits their narrative. The news I read on NPR last week was far different than a different article I read. I suggest to listen to many sources as I think the answer lies in between. The hard left media, I believe, picks the stories that scare the most people. They could not impeach our President, so if they can make this seem like the worst thing to ever happen to man-kind, and it's under his watch, they will use this in hopes to win an election. The far right picks Info which compares statistics to other Flu's and events, and down plays this pandemic to some degree. All and all I think we have done pretty well with the measures taken and no doubt we will see a spike as some areas reduce restrictions. Had it been a large out-break of a new strain of seasonal flu, we would have lost many of the same people as well. One life is too many as they say but we must take our hits and cautiously move on. We cannot let this Virus destroy our lives, economy, and country.(Rant Complete) FF
Hi Fishfarmer - good to see you, how are you?
There is a
lot of information being put out there and the science isn't getting peer reviewed due to a sincere effort to speed things up. I applauded that in March, but now we just have a load of FUD. Peer review is one of the things that separates good science from opinions. Many journals reject large amounts of submissions as not being good enough to print. When I was an associate editor of a mid-level scientific journal we rejected 90% of everything we received. Not all was bad science, maybe it didn't make much contribution to knowledge. Of the remaining 5%, much of it would be re-written in the reviewing process, sometimes extra data collected/presented, improvements to the analysis and the conclusions. Some of it was just for clarity. Those checks and review is missing from what's being published at the moment.
I'm growing fearful we will fundamentally misunderstand something about this virus, and it won't be corrected until more lives have been lost. I fear this could happen whilst all the scientists are genuinely doing their best. I'm not implying any intent to mislead, but it could still happen. And as you say, the media can cherry pick the research they publish. I know this from experience, some science can be explained to intelligent lay people quite easily, and there are other things that are hellishly difficult for the average person to grasp. So with that in mind, which story are the media going to go with... the one they can explain in a couple of minutes or the one that takes a Masters degree in biology to understand?
BTW I really hope the current riots in your cities finish soon. I've witnessed a riot and it is terrifying. I hope there is justice for George Floyd as a human being, but it rarely makes sense to burn down your own neighbourhood.
It seems like the recommendations change every week. It used to be every day so I guess that is an improvement. I hope people will continue proper hand washing and not touching face when it’s flu season. It’ll be interesting to see if cases of flu drop this winter.
They say whatever they want to control the narrative in their wicked ways.
(06-01-2020, 09:22 PM)Okokok Wrote: [ -> ]It seems like the recommendations change every week. It used to be every day so I guess that is an improvement. I hope people will continue proper hand washing and not touching face when it’s flu season. It’ll be interesting to see if cases of flu drop this winter.
Actually that's a good point. There is an issue with people, especially men, not washing their hands after using the restroom (I always try to use a tissue to open the door when I exit). I hope this pandemic makes people take better care of their hygiene.
Proper hand washing could save us from quite a few diseases... fewer colds, 'flu, and stomach bugs.