Still wiping down groceries?

[Cam77]

Just wondered if anyone is still doing this? At the beginning we were told the virus can live on surfaces for X number of days, but as far as I’m aware, the powers that be never elaborated on whether it was a real risk of transmission.

I have elderly parents and am being extra cautious for their sakes. I was about to stop wiping a few weeks ago but then number started going again when I live. I know the risk is super small, but anyway, anyone else still consider this worth doing? Or was the science updated somewhere to say there’s no risk of transmission from groceries/parcels etc?

We still wipe down our groceries, or simply take things out of the packaging immediately. So much is still unknown about the virus, it's impossible to say with confidence that it couldn't spread via the packagkng.

The only wierd people on this thread on the ones who pour scorn on these who choose to do something different.

Are you incredulous that some people never dye their hair, never buy a takeaway or ride a bike?

How does someone wiping or spraying or quarantining their shopping and/or parcels affect you?

It does not. It's not a waste of time to them.

You crack on with your choices and leave other to theirs.

I can't stand this current polarisation on everything, people who just can't seem to understand that other people may make different choices to them and that we each live a different experience.

Yeah, hard to believe there's so much scorn for those of us simply doing everything we can to reduce our chances of getting it

I don't get it either. It's kind of like a reverse Tinkerbell. If you don't clap your hands and think of Coronavirus it will go away.

High contact areas may have a higher viral load but equally if some-one sneezes on their hand, picks up some food and then puts it back down again and I pick it up 2 minutes later the viral load could be just as high as a door handle.

Higher I'd say, unless lots of people have sneezed onto their hands and touched the door handle since it was last cleaned.

It seems to me that the amount of virus present on a surface decreases each time it's transferred to another surface (or hand).

With a low number of infectious people in the community I would have thought that if 1,000 uninfected people touch a 'contaminated' handle in a day then the risk to most of them, under most circumstances, would be less than if they were the only person to touch that handle after it had been contaminated. The handle's becomes less contaminated each time it's touched, not more. It could potentially infect more people if more people touch it but each of them is marginally less likely to become infected than the person who touched it before.

We do the same as @SirVixofVixHall.

I know there are people who think it's overkill, but we're distancing and being careful in every other way, so it'd be really annoying to then get infected because someone's sneezed on/shouted over a piece of packaging.
Everyone can do what makes them comfortable. I don't see it as being paranoid, simply sensible. If I was going on a train, I'd wipe down the table before using it (now, with covid about), and I just see shopping/post packaging as another surface.

I still do, and I'll do it forever now as the water was always dirty when the bowl was clean and the cloth brand new.

Frozen food that can’t be washed, like things in cardboard packaging, or bread in permeable plastic, get decanted into freezer bags

Good idea. I have some pull-out wipes that are 70% alcohol and I wipe with these. But I do like your suggestion!

I only ever did it half heartedly. I stopped up over a month ago. I'm not sure it's wise to be too germ avoidant.

I don't think it necessarily has to be scorn. But there's no harm in pointing out to people that according to the actual scientific evidence, by people who know what they are doing, it is not necessary.

I've seen some people going absolutely crazy on here about stuff like this. I don't see why it should be encouraged when you can point out that the risk is extremely low and it is not the suggested thing to do by scientists at all.

By all means, do it if you want but it doesn't mean people have to shut up about the actual evidence.

I do as that way I feel completely relaxed about everything in the home. I reasoned that if shopping and any delivery parcels etc. that come into the house are definitely safe, then we can be more relaxed at home about constant handwashing and wiping surfaces and handles, etc.
The risk of transmission on things is something I don't know how to quantify. Lots of people saying its low risk, but is it more wishful thinking than actual knowledge? In the early days the scientists were saying transmission via contact was a significant factor in passing on the virus.

Went to the shops every day during lockdown. Ate crisps on the way home from Tesco without using hand sanitiser.

This is revolting, pandemic nonwithstanding. Supermarkets are crawling with germs at the best of times.

I do. With isopropyl alcohol spray.

@eeeyoresmiles

That's why the only thing suggested is to just wash your hands so you break that very small chance, chain of transmission.

You only break it until you return and touch that item again though, which could be twenty minutes later while making a sandwich (which is a situation with a high risk of transfer to your mouth).

I don't want to be constantly thinking about that chain of transmission and having to remember to wash my hands extra times during food prep - I'd rather wipe packaging once when things come in then forget about it after that.

EXACTLY!

Far easier to wash the bottle if milk once than remember to wash your hands every time you make a cup of tea
& not everything you eat is cooked or 'prepared'

I'm not sure it's wise to be too germ avoidant

I agree. People have been touching groceries in shops forever, there has always been germs and bacteria on our groceries. No one was washing their shopping with bleach during the last flu season that I recall.

Lots of people saying its low risk, but is it more wishful thinking than actual knowledge?

I'd like to think people like the CDC or WHO don't publish 'wishful thinking' but rather evidence based findings.

@runbummyrun

What?! Wiping down groceries? Is this a "thing"

Fucking hell, everyone has gone mad.

Could always add people who put post and parcels into quarantine too.

Can I just ask, non aggressively, if those whom did or do wash things down, get food delivered during the Lockdown (as in a restaurant or fast food delivery)
No, and still haven't (but then we don't really do takeaways anyway). We've been to 2 restaurants since February and they were very good about sanitation and keeping to the rules.

People have been touching groceries in shops forever, there has always been germs and bacteria on our groceries. No one was washing their shopping with bleach during the last flu season that I recall

I will do it from now on.

The chances of infection are small enough that at a population level scientists would prevent potentially only a very small number of cases by telling people generally to wipe shopping. Most shopping items won't have infectious material on them. On the other hand, occasionally some could have a lot (from an infectious symptomatic picker/packer), and that's the situation individuals are choosing to take precautions against here.

There's a difference between most items having an equal but tiny amount of infectious material on it, and most items on any one day having none and some having a lot. At a population-wide level they work out at the same low risk of people in general catching covid that way, but they're different in the detail.

We've just stopped this last week. We ran out of the sanitising wipes and I forgot to buy more. Was getting sick of it anyway. My hands are already a mess from using sanitizer. We used to wipe EVERYTHING. Still not sure if it was the right thing or not. Would probably start doing it again i we had another lockdown 🙄

I'm wearing a mask even though I'm exempt and it causes me massive problems as a just in case. I don't go anywhere anymore just very occasional visits to supermarket but doing it less and less. Fed up 😢

Calling people crazy etc does nothing. We're not in a time where everything is rational, who thought you'd ever be able to get something that could affect some people one way and others not at all and all just because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or that high fives and handshakes would be gone. Or that we'd have to walk about in masks.

Given the news from NZ that the latest outbreak probably came from a freight delivery I think I will carry on wiping stuff down.

No. I''ve quarantined cardboard boxes for 24 hours in winter but in this heat even if someone sneezed virus over my food delivery it probably wouldnt survive for hours. The studies have been done in lab conditions not under sunlight outdoors.

If infection levels rise locally I'd start being more cautious.

@Balkin

I don't think it necessarily has to be scorn. But there's no harm in pointing out to people that according to the actual scientific evidence, by people who know what they are doing, it is not necessary.

I've seen some people going absolutely crazy on here about stuff like this. I don't see why it should be encouraged when you can point out that the risk is extremely low and it is not the suggested thing to do by scientists at all.

By all means, do it if you want but it doesn't mean people have to shut up about the actual evidence.

There's a difference between that & the nasty comments about people being 'mad' or idiots/ridiculous!

And again 'low risk' is not 'no risk'.

Washing shopping still isnt not risk' but it's still much lower.

1/2 hour once a week isn't exactly a big deal to lower my risk of catching something, that for me, would possibly be deadly or at the very least scary & leaving me with long term problems. 🤷🏻‍♀️

roxfox