Do many people still wipe down their shopping pandemic-style

[Middleaugust]

Friend said she still does this. I was surprised. She wipes down every item in her supermarket shop when she gets home.

Do many people still do this? I never did it but I appreciate at the start of the pandemic, if people were in vulnerable groups, it was quite widespread to do so. Now though?

Nah. I honestly don't even bother washing fruit or veg. 🤫

The insanity of washing one's shopping is quite something.

No, I never did during lockdown either and also never wash fruit and veg (apart from leeks that get soil between the layers).

@SisterMichaelsHabit

If you say it out loud, it sounds like it's short for "ridiculous"?

Thanks, I had no idea. I thought that would be 'ridic'

The only shopping that I wipe is when I buy a pint of milk and it's been on a shelf that's filthy. It's wet and the conveyor belt at the till is unclean too. I give it a quick wipe before putting it in the fridge.

My DB does this. Buys organic fruit and then sprays it down with Dettol. Madness.

Did it when it wasn't known how Covid was transmitted as elderly mother. Not now.

No, I did it once during covid but felt daft so didn't bother again.

I'm not going around licking trolleys or anything but I think washing tins is overkill.

Saying that, I am having to wash milk bottles at the moment as I keep finding tiny slugs on them and they turn my stomach. Imagine the slug juice on the foil lids!

If she was that worried maybe she should speak to her friend rather than starting a thread on mumsnet....

Never even started it

I never did it in the pandemic. It made me more assiduous about washing my hands after putting shopping away, or opening post, and I still do that now, but I never washed my actual shopping.

Slugs was one of the reasons I stopped milk delivery.

No and I never did! How ridiculous.

Maybe she is OCD anyway. Not something I ever did as I thought it was bonkers

I never once even started this ridiculous nonsense. Never will.

It was a misplaced precaution in covid (because as we now know, covid transmission is overwhelmingly airborne)

It makes a little more sense against something like noro, where surfaces are a much more important driver of infections.

That sounds like a mental health issue for your friend. Has she had any help or support for that? No one with a healthy sense of balance about disease risk disinfects the weekly shop.

Ive never done this. Seemed crazy to me even in the worst covid times. But we arent vulnerable and my kids dragged home covid pretty much at the start from school, so after that outbreak the entire town was pretty lax about it.

No, because I’m not insane. She’s not going to catch it off a pint of milk and pound of carrots FFS. 🤦‍♀️

Before we found out covid was transmitted through air I did.
That was a few years ago now though. Sounds like your friend still has some anxiety 😥

TBH I always suspected the number of people who were doing it even in spring 2020 was a bit overblown.

The only person I know who was openly doing it, and did it for a long time, is a relative who has anxiety and was really fucked over by the deliberate fear based messaging policy. They've stopped now though, afaik.

Even my mum doesn’t do that anymore - and she is extra anxious about the whole thing (well everything really). She used to wash the whole shopping with water+bleach.

Have you tried to explain to your friend that covid is airborne? And that, if she wants to protect herself, she needs to wear a mask instead (at least FFP2, if not FFP3).

I did it once in lockdown and decided it was a fast route to giving myself a nervous breakdown and never did it again. I know one person who does it but she always did.

I did it during the first year or so of the Pandemic, when it was still believed you could get Covid from touching surfaces etc. I was living with and looking after somebody with cancer and did everything within my power to keep them safe. I imagine a lot of other people felt the same, despite the insensitive sniggering at the time from some posters on here. People like me couldn't afford to take chances or dismiss medical advice or leave any tiny gap for error. We weren't as lucky as some others.

I'm far too lazy to have ever done it. I wonder if the friend has developed OCD-related behaviour with this (I'm not qualified to say obviously so that is a self-consciously amateur guess).

I know someone whose husband does, and leaves the post in a separate room for 3 days. She's actually divorcing him.