Are you still wiping groceries?

[Lovely1a2b3c]

Just that! We have been wiping food shopping items as some of the family are vulnerable (not shielding) but wondering if it's time to stop?

Never started.

any people caught it but the scary thing is that two of those people went to church at a different time to the infected people.

Or caught it in another way.

Impossible to prove.

I also read that about the church couple.

And another about a man who caught it on a bus 30 minutes after an infected man sat in the same chair. It’s why they were light treating buses throughout the day. It’s such a tiny thing, just giving it a rinse before you put it away. I don’t get people saying oh no, it’s more faff than I could ever tolerate etc. I do it myself, I agree the peace of mind makes up for mild inconvenience.

We have been told right at the start that the virus could live on hard surfaces like plastic for 3 days and longer.

There is little evidence however that:

It would still be able to infect people after X amount of time on packaging

It would exist in sufficient quantities to make you ill

As others have said, it's such a tiny risk that there is even any "virus" there in the first place. One of the very few people who have Covid, don't know they have Covid so are out walking around, would have to be in the same shop you later go in, pick up the exact pack you later pick up, cough all over it, and leave enough of the virus on a package to later infect you.

Given that there were 20 new cases in the whole of Scotland today, 50% of which were in care homes and some more in hospitals, I think my local trip to the supermarket is perfectly safe without wiping. My drive there in the car however - total death trap in comparison.

Never have

@time4anothername

I had stopped bothering as cases in my area have moved from high to low but last night I was watching "Keeping Britain Fed" on BBC and they interviewed an academic from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was quite alarming about how supermarkets could be infective places! [it is 47 mins in if you watch it on iplayer]. She said the risk from packaging is small but she quarantines dry goods for 3 days and washes down fresher goods to "dislodge organisms" and thinks we should do this, despite small risks, to get numbers right down before the risks of Winter start up again.

People who work in these areas sometimes get kind of weird about this stuff. It's quite common for dieticians to get eating disorders for example, or nurses hypochondria.

Never wiped down my groceries and never will. Seems a massive waste of time. Just wash your hands thoroughly, that should be enough

I have never wiped down shopping and nor do I wash my hands after touching anything in my kitchen. The idea of washing all bought food, quarantining food and quarantining mail blows my mind.

However, although I have a few underlying health conditions, I’m not vulnerable which is probably why I don’t feel the need to be so over cautious.

My 6 year old is already a little anxious about the virus so the last thing I want is him thinking that it is so lethal he can’t even pick up the post or help put the shopping away in in case it gets him.

I’m also a nurse, working with confirmed/suspected Covid patients and despite that, plus the fact I don’t wash my shopping, I still haven’t caught the virus.

I completely understand why the shielded and those at high risk would do everything possible to avoid picking up the virus, but for the rest of us, I think this obsession with complete cleanliness, including washing and quarantining food can be a slippery slope...

Each to their own though is what I say.

Well said midsummer

I sometimes think people forget that they have immune systems.
That’s what they are there for. Keep them healthy, plenty of sunshine for your vitamin d, Or supplement with d3 and k2 on no sunshine or winter days, good nutrition, exercise, manage stress levels, keep your eye on the ball re healthy weight and drinking / smoking .
Good digestion, elimination and hydration is vital
Our immune systems are meant to switch on and off to keep us safe.
Exposure to pathogens is needed for this to happen

Protect it and will protect you

And queen
I think I mixed both of you up a bit there.

Supermarket worker here.

There is not a silent epidemic of supermarket workers falling ill. Nor postal workers.

If we can survive without washing all the deliveries, most people can survive without washing their shopping.

I shall carry on doing so for as long as I feel comfortable, doesn't harm anyone else.....

On the contrary, people using large quantities of bleach or disinfectant or disposable wipes does cause damage in the long-term.

But at the moment, it seems to be okay to use thousands of chemicals or disposable wipes, gloves and masks as long as it means you don't catch COVID

@vanillandhoney I agree, I can't see how bleaching your shopping is doing any good

Yes I still am. Generally with an antibacterial wipe.
I read somewhere that the virus can live through being frozen, which has helped my OCD tremendously (not). So yeah, everything.
Anything that's a fabric needs to be put in quarantine for 48 hours in the office, then antibacked (dettol spray) before it can go into the main house

@vanillandhoney

I shall carry on doing so for as long as I feel comfortable, doesn't harm anyone else.....

On the contrary, people using large quantities of bleach or disinfectant or disposable wipes does cause damage in the long-term.

But at the moment, it seems to be okay to use thousands of chemicals or disposable wipes, gloves and masks as long as it means you don't catch COVID

Completely agree. All these bloody wipes that people have persuaded them selves are necessary in life.

Just as the anti single use movement was starting to get somewhere....:(

I’m so glad DH and I think along the same lines! He is washing his hands more but that’s it. It would be hard work if he wanted to bleach everything and burn the post.

The issue with this virus specifically is that it causes the immune system to over react and the deaths occur from cytokine storms attacking healthy tissue.

Vit D will obviously help but telling a vulnerable person with lupus that their immune system just needs exposure to viruses is vastly underestimating the issue.

Let people wash whatever they want to wash.

@ChasingRainbows19

Never did. I think it's low risk.

Germs have been in things for ever and objects have been handled by multiple people too. If you wash your hands thoroughly and don't touch face/mouth etc you can't spread the germs.

Would be interested to see if Supermarket workers or packers feel they were at risk or a higher ratio actually caught it.

Supermarket worker here! No I've never washed the shopping. I know we're handling a million pieces of other people's shopping a day, albeit with gloves on, but to be fair we don't know what their hand hygiene is. We change gloves regularly, use sanitizer a lot and wash hands as often as we can. When I go shopping for myself, I wear gloves and wash my hands when I get home and after unpacking the shopping. It's never occurred to me to wash it, tho I have friends who do and that's fine by me.

And on a totally unscientific point, the shop where I work (medium sized supermarket) has a staff of over 100, mostly part time, older people (like me), parents with school age children, students etc, and as far as I know no one has actually had it, we would have heard I imagine if that happened. We've had some people self isolate due to the POSSIBILITY their symptoms that they had at the time could have been CV but nothing has come of that.

Posters asking me about the programme I mentioned, I dont' know any more about her reasoning or stats but as said, the woman is about 47 mins in on iPlayer, "Keeping Britain Fed".

Despite what she said, I am not taking to washing items again. To those still washing down shopping I would put in a plea on behalf of the environment to not keep using throw away wipes. From all I've read, a degreaser breaks the layer that holds the virus together ,so a cloth with washing up liquid is all you need if you are worried that you do need to wash something down.

I washed down items in the past if they'd been in a shopping trolley when I was on chemo and had to be really careful because you so often see people letting their toddlers stand up in trolleys in outdoor shoes or babies in nappies sit in them rather than on the seat part. Thankfully not in that position now.

Yes, I’ve been cleaning it and intend to keep doing so. If one of my family caught Covid and died I need to know that I did everything possible to try and keep us safe. I know it’s OTT really, but it makes me feel safe and gives me a bit of a feeling of control over something at least!

Let people wash whatever they want to wash.

Just not with disposable wipes or bleach as that does affect everyone.

Oh come on- be reasonable some of you lot!

It's not about 'bleaching' shopping and coming over all emotive, and using inflammatory language.

I wash my shopping as we need to take care, being older, for a start.

I fill the sink with water and a few drops of detergent and dunk plastic packets, wipe with a cloth, then dry.

Things that are not in water tight packets get wiped with a dishcloth sprayed with a weak home made solution of bleach / water. Certainly no more - and a for lot less- than you would pour down your loo to clean it.

I don't use wipes for cleaning and never have.

As for posters saying colleagues in the supermarket are not off sick with Covid, you do understand that up to 50% of people who have it, have no symptoms but can still infect others?

Just not with disposable wipes or bleach as that does affect everyone.

so are the bleach police saying the same about detergent, shower gel, soap, shampoo, loo cleaners.....

You might not use wipes but so many people do it's ridiculous. How quickly people forget the damage they do to the environment!