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?

Yes I am. I am shielding. If the virus would have killed me when it suited the govt for everyone to be afraid and stuck in their houses, it will kill me now that it suits the govt for everyone to go out and about and restart the economy. I'll be advised by my medical consultants, not politicians. My doc says wiping groceries is sensible.

@JinglingHellsBells

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?

Yes I do understand that people can have it and not show symptoms. However I was replying to a pp who was asking if supermarket workers caught it on a higher ratio. As I said, it's not a scientific observation, just my own anecdotal view of the situation that I'm experiencing. There is also the fact that I'm living in a part of the country that has very low rates.

And if 50% don't show symptoms, there should STILL be a large number of symptomatic supermarket workers, if it's contractable this way. There aren't. There simply aren't. As PP, I work in a supermarket where we have had not one single case among workers. Even if 50% were asymptomatic...what about the others? Where are they?

I mean, wash your shopping if you want to, and if you are worried, but honestly - I don't think it makes any difference.

Never have done this, and definitely don’t plan to start!

I’m old enough to remember the mid 1980s when AIDS emerged as a widespread disease and the over the top reaction as it was a new disease which people didn’t fully understand. I remember parents not letting their kids use public toilets for fear of catching AIDs from the toilet seat. I imagine in a decade or so we’ll look back at the coronavirus ‘shopping disinfecters’ in a similar way.

We have been shielding the last 14 weeks and am still wiping down everything bar fresh fruit which I then wash before use

Had a huge Asda shop delivered this morning and spent the best part of 90 mins wiping down everything and putting things away bit by bit

Antibacterial spray for surfaces and hand washing still big business in our house too xX

I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a rise in some illnesses in a few years that are later traced to people accidentally consuming considerable amounts of antibacterial spray, hand wash etc if some of the posters here are anything to go by!

I have always washed my hands rigorously after being out anywhere but no, I think wiping down shopping is over the top. So I haven’t. Can’t help but think if it was that easy to pick up the numbers wouldn’t have come down like they have.

Yes I’m still wiping everything that comes into the house with Dettol.

Why does me wiping my shopping make so many people upset? I wipe my shopping. it's not that I fear the workers might be ill, but I don't know who else has touched that box or packet and whether they are unwell.

2 of us are vulnerable so we wipe. If you don't feel it is necessary for your household, fine. But don't imply I am a neurotic pearl clutcher!

If the virus would have killed me when it suited the govt for everyone to be afraid and stuck in their houses, it will kill me now that it suits the govt for everyone to go out and about and restart the economy

When the government told people to shield far less was known about the disease than is known now. In March people thought it was a respiratory disease, it now appears that it is an inflammatory disease. Hence the risks have probably changed for different groups of people. However, I agree that it is wiser to take advice from doctors than politicians.

I really hope you are all NOT using anti-bacterial spray! This is a VIRUS!

If we end up with more antibiotic resistant bacteria then we'll really be in trouble and this virus will be nothing.

@Clytemnestra2 I'm probably much older than you but you cannot possibly equate the misunderstandings about AIDs and a pandemic.

And if 50% don't show symptoms, there should STILL be a large number of symptomatic supermarket workers,

@Zaphodsotherhead It's 50% of the overall population not 50% of supermarket workers.

Doh.

@cologne4711 antibiotic resistance sprung to my mind aswell

Yes, I got that, @JinglingHellsBells. But supermarket workers ARE part of the overall population. So far very few of us are affected. Surely, if shopping is so contaminated that washing is necessary, then, proportionately, more of us should be affected! And if 50% of the affected supermarket workers are asymptomatic, then 50% of the AFFECTED SUPERMARKET WORKERS should be showing symptoms. But we aren't.

Never did. But I wash my hands after opening parcels and letters

I never have.

It’s laziness like some of these people that’ll prevent it going away faster because they just can’t be bothered to take a little time and extra care. Yes you can get it from packaging if it’s on the tin/jar and you open it without wiping it it’s now in the food and on your hands. I also unpack all packed vegetables before putting them in the fridge. And leave any parcels for 72 hours before opening them and wash my hands as soon as I take the parcel in. And my husband gets straight in the shower as soon as he gets in from work after putting his clothes into the washing machine.

Nope, have never bothered but I have very little fear of this virus and am not vulnerable. Good old hand wash when I get back from shopping does me.

Yes you can get it from packaging if it’s on the tin/jar and you open it without wiping it it’s now in the food and on your hands.
And your evidence that anyone has got it this way is??

I’ve never wiped and we’re in the shielding group.

Just washing hands throughly, and binning bags immediately.

I don’t let my children help, they just let me know when the van pulls up outside. They have a new game, guessing which van it is. Today it was the hotdog van.

@JinglingHellsBells yes, I realise that AIDS and coronavirus are very different diseases.

But my point is that human nature doesn’t change over time and that the tendency for some people to overreact to a new / unknown threat is something that has happened before and (in my opinion) is happening again now.

Yes, we're still wiping everything to be on the safe side.

We've never showered after getting in from work either, but we are able to maintain social distancing in our workplaces so pretty low risk.

@QueenofmyPrinces

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.

The other day while i was driving along the road a saw a postman with a letter in his mouth while sorting through the pile in his hands. You might want to re-think washing your hands after touching things from outside of your home.