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?

@drspouse

Why did they advise caution with post? Who advised this? I have not heard this at all.

Outside MN I’ve never heard of it either. There are so many urban myths about this virus.

It's odd, isn't it? I have no issue whatever with people washing and cleaning whatever they feel like, but people seem to get so defensive. Almost as though they hope that Covid is really really infectious and can be caught by looking at the postman, or touching a piece of plastic that might once have been touched by someone else!

If it really were that infectious, then cases should still be rising, given that there must still be sufferers out in the community. But cases are falling and are, currently mostly confined to care homes and hospitals. And it's not because people are bleaching their washing and spraying their post...

So why is there such a divide? Is it because everyone feels defensive that their way is the only way to be? Or something else?

@drspouse

Why did they advise caution with post? Who advised this? I have not heard this at all.

I have. If the postman has the virus and has just coughed over your post, it's dangerous. It doesn't need massive precautions, you just need to wash your hands properly after opening the envelopes.

Why do people think you can't catch Covid from paper? What special property do you imagine paper has that you think the virus can't possibly be on it?

I have. If the postman has the virus and has just coughed over your post, it's dangerous. It doesn't need massive precautions, you just need to wash your hands properly after opening the envelopes.

This, I thought you were meant to wash your hands after opening post and dispose of the envelope immediately

We're still wiping down shopping, etc, because we have underlying conditions.
It's not just a British habit. There are videos from doctors in the US advising how to disinfect shopping.

Generally the virus is transmitted via breathing it in. Passing a Cv positive person whilst them in corridor is unlikely to expose you enough, Sitting right next to them for 15 min yes.
I don't lick my shopping packaging generally and wash hands a lot...

People broadly don't think you can catch CV from paper due to the research suggesting the risk is extremely low and the WHO confirmed that printing processes in e.g newspapers means they are completely safe.

Why would people think there's a risk when people have been encouraged to buy newspapers throughout CV? And the UK PM sent a letter to every household? 😂

There is a divide I guess because your personal risk of death from covid varies from 1 in 10 is you are old to something like 1 in 100,000 if you are young and no conditions

The bigger the risk of dying if infected, the more care you will take to avoid infection. I believe Jenny Harris was cleaning her shopping, DH is high risk, it's slow effort , We clean or quarantine, but I would not expect DD to clean hers.

I bet most of you would slow down if driving in fig or ice? You automatically compensate for the increased risk caused by the conditions. Covid is no different.

I never did wipe down shopping.
Washed hands after opening parcels and post though.
Have managed to avoid Covid thus far. Although I reckon I had it right back at the beginning.

People broadly don't think you can catch CV from paper due to the research suggesting the risk is extremely low and the WHO confirmed that printing processes in e.g newspapers means they are completely safe.

But that is irrelevant to the issue of post.

Is it? Can you point me towards any case of anyone worldwide contracting CV from their post? Or any health officials anywhere saying letters are dangerous? That would be really helpful.

There are many many cases where the transmission route is completely unknown. Guess all of them could have been post or newspapers or shopping

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

There was some official advice about the possibility of catching it from cardboard and so on. It was said to be able to live on paper for 4 hours I think. Sorry I can't recall the source.

It's all utter nonsense. I'm not washing shopping and I'm not wearing a mask and I'm not losing my few remainingmarbles due to this wretched thing .

An alarming recent study published by researchers at Imperial College London showed that viral DNA left on a hospital bed rail in an isolation room had spread within ten hours to 18 other surfaces, including door handles, chairs in a waiting room, children's toys and books in a play area. Although they used a virus that infects plants rather than humans as a surregate for Sars-CoV-2, it shows just how far a virus in a droplet of liquid that lands on a bed can spread by people touching surfaces

Not a great guess though is it? When there's zero evidence of that and zero research evidence of it being transmitted that way.

Plus the studies in homes where every member had CV but CV was not found on ANY surfaces in the homes.

Actually, I think @midgebabe has it when they say about adjusting to conditions (slowing down when driving in fog or ice). Those who perceive themselves to be at greatest threat, will take most care. That threat might not be actual, but they may have anxieties or other thought patterns that mean their perception of that threat is higher.

Some of us have low perception of threat and will therefore not take any extra precautions. It's not up to us to say anyone who washes their shopping or quarantines their post is being unnecessarily cautious, because, to them, the caution is necessary.

Even if we quietly think that they are bonkers.

Never wiped down anything just good hand hygiene, which should be standard really as they're are lots of other communicable illnesses that are harmful to people with underlying health.

I have noticed (and this is anecdotal no stats) but among the people I know those of us who have continued to work out of the home are much more relaxed about the realities of this virus (excluding clinical staff who actually knowingly come into contact with it) compared to those who have been sheltered at home the whole time, maybe because we are having to mix with people, get public transport etc we really can't afford to be worried about a parcel killing the family.

Yet someone caught cv from either a prayer book or seat in a church in South Korea , several hours after the carrier was in the church, so surface transmission is possible

The risk can be small, but it's not up to you to say if that risk is small enough for other people to ignore it

Particularly when we know the risk is highly variable across the population anyway

Do what you like as long as it doesn't impinge on anyone else. Live and let live

@midgebabe Can you provide a link to evidence that please?

It is practically IMPOSSIBLE to know where and when the virus was caught. Because time taken to show symptoms can vary so wildly, because people aren't always honest about where they've been, because, unless you go somewhere in a sealed bubble and travel back in same you can't say it was DEFINITELY caught somewhere - it will never really be possible to track sites of infection.

People actually do this? Omg way over the top!

" someone caught it in Korea" OK

Ah, Singapore not South Korea , so sorry about that!

www.livescience.com/how-covid-19-spreads-transmission-routes.html

And they aren't sure that is what happened. The infected person could have caught it elsewhere, or from aerosol droplets.