Not collecting parcel from China

[Imfinallyhappy1]

I ordered some bits off amazon a few weeks ago. Just a hamster ball and slide for dd hamster.

I know they have come from China and are currently at the post office but dh at first stated I needed to wear gloves and then flash wipe all the contents before I get home. He has now decided I can't get them as he's worried about coronavirus.

I understand but I'm also very I've waited for ages for the bits. Dd has waited and I thinks it's a bit overkill

Aibu to just go get them anyway and flash wipe it to placate him?

I don't want to spend more money buying something I've already brought.

Pets at home?

Where do you think their balls came from?

Unless your parcel contains a coronavirus infected hamster from Wuhan, then I think you're pretty safe.

I'd maybe wipe the outer packaging with a bleach solution if your DH that worried. I'm assuming the actual ball and slide will have been packaged long before the outbreak. If your DH still not satisfied just wash them with water, I wouldn't use harsh chemicals on animal equipment.

The Chinese postal service decontaminates parcels as a matter of course.

Its impossible the virus could live that long without a culture or a host.

The hamster does not love the ball, it is in there trying to think how to escape. I'm sure you would 'love it' - not.

TBF zorbing is a right laugh. Seriously though, no hamster balls.

Some things can live for longer. A drop of blood with the HIV virus that would be dead before it fell to the floor. Hepatitis can live for weeks on a hard surface. We simply don't know with this one. However, it is extremely small probability right now. A car is about a billion times more likely to kill you. Are you driving any time soon?

Its impossible the virus could live that long without a culture or a host.

Hepatitis, three weeks. No culture or host.

The chances of plastic having the live virus on it are clearly tiny, however, I do feel extremely sorry for your husband because he feels anxious about this. Can you imagine him feeling frightened and terrorised every time he walks by the hamster cage and sees this stuff?

I'm not really sure why posters think it's acceptable to say that the man is daft or stupid because he is anxious. He will himself know that the risk is small, but it is clearly upsetting him. The way the media reports things, it isn't surprising that people get anxiety over stuff like this. It's miserable living with anxiety so as a kindness to him, I'd leave the parcel. Surely you can pick something up from a pet shop? Send him to get the stuff? The cost of plastic stuff from China is probably very low anyway?

I said coronavirus, not hepatitis, and which type of hepatitis? Are you referring to blood or food borne types, in either case, if it lives for three weeks it's is in a culture or a host that helps it survive. If you put any bacteria on hard plastic surface without any other cells it can attach to it won't survive. Also in other news, the earth is round.

Coronavirus is nothing new, its just the mutation that is. Like Influenza, which is ever present and changes all the time. More people die from that every year.

Haven’t read thread but I love that your hamster has a slide lol

@LolaLollypop
Disinfect him with anti bac then chuck him in the freezer for 24 hours to make sure the virus is killed! Job done! :)

I'm amazed hamster balls are on sale; it sounds a cruel practice: though not as delicate surgically as harvesting moth balls, I'd have thought.

oh for goodness sake - you're not ordering fresh meat / live animals from a wet market express couriered over

or bio hazard materials!

Stick the parcel in the freezer to appease dh?

Population of China :- 1.3 billion.
Number infected:- 1300

Roughly one in a million.

A glib response I expect you are proud of yourself for. Except that just two days ago the number affected was around 450, the spread of the disease is faster than expected and your “one in a million” is already out of date as the numbers increase.

There is no need for panic or hysteria especially around silly things like parcels, and the likelihood of it reaching epidemic here is very low, but comments like these are unnecessary as this is a real issue in China.

What about goods stocked in your local shops that have arrived from China?

It probably would occur to me, but then I'd scoff at myself and maybe compromise by giving it a wipe, to be on the safe side.

Your husband is being unreasonable.

This reminds me of my friend insisting on using an umbrella when we had the Chernobyl disaster and also she would only by lamb from New Zealand.

Those that say hamster balls are bad, how else are you supposed to let them out of the cage? Not all hamsters are tame enough to be let loose in the house.

If a hamster ball is cruel, how much better is it to have one in a cage or tank? Does the hamster not still yearn to be free? Maybe the answer is not to keep a hamster at all.

Disclaimer: Lighthearted-ish. I don't judge people for keeping hamsters, but they're not my personal ideal pet. On the other hand, hamsters don't require frequent walks, don't bark loudly at the sound of a car honking in a TV programme, and (so far as I know) don't roll in whatever nasty, foul-smelling substances they come across, so maybe I should've kept hamsters instead of dogs...

I said coronavirus, not hepatitis, and which type of hepatitis? C. And no, it doesn't need a culture. Some vomiting bugs can live a long time outside the human body as well. I'm not saying this particular bug does, just that it's possible.

Pick it up and stick it in the freezer for a week if you are that worried

The hamster does not love the ball, it is in there trying to think how to escape. I'm sure you would 'love it' - not.

Really? How do you know? Any evidence?

drive carefully, everyone - one in 20,000 risk each year of dying in a road accident, it seems.

MN risk assessment coupled with the inevitable 'big pharma'. Can't make it up.

I thought this thread was going to be about literally collecting a parcel from China, in which case yanbu to refuse

*A glib response I expect you are proud of yourself for. Except that just two days ago the number affected was around 450, the spread of the disease is faster than expected and your “one in a million” is already out of date as the numbers increase.

There is no need for panic or hysteria especially around silly things like parcels, and the likelihood of it reaching epidemic here is very low, but comments like these are unnecessary as this is a real issue in China.*

Not proud of - it is just a fact. This is an issue in China but it is very important to remember that China is a very large place with a very very large population. Even excluding the fact that it is very unlikely that the virus would stay alive if it was on the parcel to start with, it is important to remember that it is still a very small number of people infected and so - yes - the chances that the people who have been involved in the parcel being infected is indeed very low. The vast vast majority of China has less than 5 infections in the entire province.

Numbers are incredibly important to giving you a sense of perspective over things.