New book brought into the house

[CurtainWitcher]

Book delivered by Amazon. I put the packaging straight in the recycling, but brought the book straight into the house. It's now on the coffee table.
DH said I should have put it in the garage for 72 hours. Should i?

Mumsnetters are extreme in their paranoia over Coronavirus. I go out, shop, work with vulnerable people, go walking .. and just try to remember to wash my hands a bit more frequently. I wouldn’t dream of disinfecting my shopping .

But then you'd expose the staff from the independent bookshop to the virus instead?
No because they are more likely to be a small scale operation with decent social distancing practices.
However, what about if the small scale bookshop owner has Covid and sneezes on your purchase??
I suggest all packages should be put on an intensive wash in the dishwasher twice to ensure you don't all come down with the lurgy. Better to be safe than sorry 🤷🏼‍♀️

@myfaceismyown the window may be a better place for him to dry out

I buy ebooks as I can’t hold print books. I think as long as you’ve disposed of the packaging and washed your hands it will be fine.

Jeeze. I can't believe these people are out there.

And what on earth is this sort of thing doing to impressionable children in their families? Seriously, they're going to end up being called the paranoid generation.

Are people telling me they are buying food 3 days before they eat it? Plus if you can wait 3 days before opening a delivery its probably not essential.

🤣🤣 seriously?

We have made up diluted disinfectant in a spray bottle and spraying everything that comes into the house, food shopping, post, parcels, our shoes etc. Its just not worth the worry and takes seconds

Exactly the same here. And to the person who asked about washing shoes and clothes - we’re not going out further then the bottom of the drive but when I’ve done that, yes, I wipe over the soles of my shoes with a bleach solution. If I do end up having to go to a shop, I’ll change and wash my clothes when I come back too.

As PP said, if this is OTT, it takes seconds and we’re only inconveniencing ourselves, so what’s the problem?

soontobe60 My concern is not the package, it’s the health of the workers handling it. Amazon workers are notoriously under protected, local bookshop workers are probably OK.

Some people seem to take the fact we are in a pandemic very lightly here! Maybe because it is easy to underplay the seriousness of something if you are not directly seeing it e.g. in the hospitals.

There is a sometimes deadly virus circulating, it can live on cardboard for 2r hours so yes I quaratine post for 24 hours. Just like in past pandemics they wore masks on their faces and dropped money in vinegar. This is not a normal situation and there is a small risk from your post. You don't want to risk spreading it.

It might make the situation feel too real for those who choose to risk it, but why bother washing your hands at all if you are not worried about surface contamination?

Don’t understand why all the nastiness on this thread. We know the virus can survive on surfaces. If people want to take the precaution of wiping down shopping or quarantining stuff that’s fine isn’t it? Can’t see why it bothers others so much.

Why are people saying it is bonkers? China and Spain have been using disinfectant on public spaces. And if washing hands prevent virus spreaf wouldn't other surfaces other the skin also hold the virus? Even before this whenever anyone in my house had the flu I would clean surfaces and door handles to stop spreading to others in the house. It works.

My husband is doing the shopping weekly and will go straight into the shower when he gets home.

I disinfect everything that comes into the house then I don’t have to faff around with this 72 hours. I can rest easy, might seem over kill. But I’ve got 2 vulnerable people in my household, I feel I need to do as much as possible to reduce risk.

Crikey.

When packages come, I bring them in, unpack them and read the book, or put the food away, or take the record out of the cover and stick it on the record player, or use the nail varnish, or, hopefully, tomorrow or the day after, put on the new cardigan and the new trainers, oh, and dye my hair.

I wash my hands regularly, I keep things clean but no, I do not put things in quarantine after they're delivered because just why!

Yes, we have to be careful, but I'm not going to let this whole thing turn me into Howard Hughes unless and until I'm told that it is absolutely and utterly necessary.

I have strong suspicions that the washers/bleachers and glove wearers may not get CV-19 but may well suffer from some other follow up infection, due to their lack of immunity.
Who knows? But I do know I don’t want my family to get any other infection or illness during the pandemic because I want all of us to he as healthy as possible to start with if our immune system has to deal with Covid19. And this comes from someone who strongly believes in building up immunity, has avoided using bleach or chlorinated products all their life, and didn’t wash the floor with disinfectants when children were little. I always clean everything With normal stuff but the only time I ever used proper disinfectant all over the house was when DH came home from hospital with a nasty bug. And it kept the rest of us safe. I have always tried to disinfect my phone and keys because they obviously get covered in germs but otherwise there isn’t much scope fir going over board during normal times. If doctors in my family strongly advise to disinfect everything in a household of healthy and physically fit people, I’ll bloody well do it whilst I can and it doesn’t harm anyone. It doesn’t take that long to do it and if it did I’d make time for it.
And before the lockdown I disinfected my workspace in every office I had to use outside of my house.
I am very surprised at the cavalier attitude coming from some people.

We had a book delivered by Amazon today, my husband opened it and washed his hands after.

Does the book have any symptoms? New cough? Loss of taste? High temp?

OP I did try to interject a little humour but if you piece through this thread there is some sensible advise. DH is a biochemist. The virus is a ribo nucleaic acid covered in a lipid. Remove the lipid (fat) and the unstable RNA molecule denatures (breaks up). Washing up liquid, shampoo, plain old soap all good at this. Bleach or disinfectant only does this at high concentrations. Bleach is an oxidising agent and will destroy it but is not good for you full strength! No one knows exactly how long the virus remains on a surface yet. Bin the packaging and wash your hands as you have done. It is highly likely the book has been inside the packaging for plenty of time for the virus to have lost its effectiveness if it was ever there. Same with food. Buy it, bin packaging, wash hands - cook it as this also denatures it. Hopefully you were doing this anyway :) Always be grateful to the people still working to send you stuff!

I would have tipped the book out, put packaging in recycling, wiped the book with a dettol wipe, then washed my hands.

Mixed messages so very hard to tell but we have had several packages delivered or left on the doorstep. I have just opened them, never thought to leave it somewhere in case the package was contaminated?! I couldn't leave a package unattended for 72 hours. I need to read a book! Stay safe everyone.... ❤️

French local councils have issued guidelines for handling shopping and deliveries. Shopping: leave non-perishable items in the car or garage for 72 hours or discard outer packaging. Wash fruit and vegetables. Wipe the rest with soapy water. Parcels and post - open and discard outer packaging (straight into bin). Wash hands thoroughly. They don't seem to think that taking these precautions are a sign of madness.

His take on it is, it makes no difference, but if it makes people feel better, do it.

But it makes a difference on a larger level. Concern for the environment has gone out of the window as everyone uses gallons of cleaning products in plastic bottles and gets through dozens of packs of plastic wipes. People who are already pre-disposed to being a bit anxious or who have mild OCD are tipped over the edge and scared shitless by people's elaborate rituals and methods for dealing with this perceived threat.

Rather than saying that it does no harm he would have been better saying that the risk is so infinitely small that it's really not worth the effort, keep risk in perspective, do the important stuff like washing your hands and keeping your distance.

It is possible to wipe down your shopping/packaging/whatever without using disposable wipes or throwing away plastic bottles.
I manage it.

Shopping: leave non-perishable items in the car or garage for 72 hours or discard outer packaging

But what do they suggest those of us who work in shops do? I have to replenish and tidy shelves, and most of that stock has been handled by a huge number of people before I get to it... we can't open the shop once every 72 hours.

Or do we not count?

Just wipe the book with an anti bac wipe then wash table and hands.