To ask if I really am safe walking down a fairly busy street?

[loveyouradvice]

Just that really ... busy high street, not room for social distancing on pavements but pass people fast and perhaps .half a metre or more away... and totally safe in shops, as masses of space and everyone wearing masks.

I believe the latest guidance is that I am totally safe unless someone with Covid actually coughs in my face?

Yes I believe you are safe as long as someone doesn't cough in your face. Otherwise its 15 minutes within 2m of each other that can pass it on - less likely to happen outdoors though

What if someone has exhaled the covid, and you then walk directly into the air they breathed out? That doesn't sound very safe to me.

It would become diluted in the great quantity of air in the outside world and become dispersed by air currents. If it spread so easily outdoors then everyone would have it by now

change how can you possibly live a life if you seriously think like that? OP, yes, you are safe. a) Community rates are still v low. tiny numbers per 100,000 have it. b) lots of people are wearing masks c) just normal breathing is not going to cause a deluge of covid droplets to hang about at face height lurking in anticipation of the next passer by. With all the sanitising and SD people are doing in normal enclosed spaces (other than some bars and pubs) normal life REALLY needs to get back on track.

In the UK as a whole, the rate is about 30 in 100,000 people, or in other words 3 in every 10,000 people - even if that is understated by half, you would be spectacularly unlucky to come across anyone with it.
And just momentarily passing someone in the street would not be enough exposure to catch it.

You’re safe.

This kind of post makes me despair for the future of humanity.

From what I understand if you’re a decent distance away then you should be fine. And that part of how you catch it is duration of exposure, so a split second of passing someone in the street isn’t the same as having a face on conversation with them.

Walking past symptomless people, outdoors and for a very brief moment is not going to give you Covid ffs. If you want to, wear a mask outside, but personally I think that would be bonkers.

This whole 15 minutes is crap.
If you happen to be in the same air space that someone who has the virus has been in then youre at risk. Covid doesn't have a 15 minutes timer!!! Else why would touching a door handle be so risky.

Watch someone vaping. How far ahead or behind them does the smoke trail. That's the absolute minimum distance you need to be.

Good grief.

Is this really how people are living?

Can you call this living?

@SoloMummy

This whole 15 minutes is crap. If you happen to be in the same air space that someone who has the virus has been in then youre at risk. Covid doesn't have a 15 minutes timer!!! Else why would touching a door handle be so risky.

Touching a door handle isn't particularly risky.

Im not sure touching a door handle is risky.

They initially thought it was as they thought it transmitted through touch like colds and flu. The things Ive read recently are fomites aren't considered a risk at all (but they wont rule it out) but indoor airborne is a very real risk.

We're mixing outdoors but not indoors.

The vast, vast majority of cases are transmitted indoors. The viral load outside where there are complex air movements in an unrestricted environment is miniscule because a lungful of breath disipates so quickly.

Yes indoors in hospitals and care settings sorry, at your friend’s house, definitely.

Yes you're safe.

Its nothing like vaping.

@Changethetoner

What if someone has exhaled the covid, and you then walk directly into the air they breathed out? That doesn't sound very safe to me.

It's spread by globules (not sure if that's the right word), it's not airborne per se. That said I think avoiding busy areas is the best thing to do to avoid having someone with the virus cough in your face or wipe their mouth or nose with their hand and then touch something you might touch.

Exhaled the covid :o

Sorry

No, this isn't a huge risk. You can come into contact with small amounts of virus - you constantly do - and nothing will happen because your immune system can perfectly well manage small amounts of virus. Not just coronavirus - any virus.

If you are immunocompromised or newborn then maybe take distancing a little more seriously, yes. For most people, this is absolutely fine.

Masks do pretty much chuff all.
100 years of scientific research up until about May 2020 all said the same thing.
Then, suddenly....it all changed!
Except that the government's own page on masks says 'the evidence is weak and the effect is likely to be small'.

Sorry to burst the bubble if an obviously anxious person, OP, but frightened people believing thats masks work us the reason we have a mandate for the horrid filth rags.

@dementedpixie

Yes I believe you are safe as long as someone doesn't cough in your face. Otherwise its 15 minutes within 2m of each other that can pass it on - less likely to happen outdoors though

Covid wears a watch then ?

Where does it say you're totally safe unless someone coughs in your face.

The risk of catching covid seems to be much reduced by being outside. Inside, where there is less ventilation, risks are higher hence mask wearing.

Social distancing and mask wearing reduce risk but they aren't 100%. Viruses live on surfaces, shop door handles, cash dispensers, payment key pads and can be transferred that way so washing your hands regularly is vital.

You aren't 100% safe anywhere, but sd, handwashing and masks reduce the risk.

@Treebore

Masks do pretty much chuff all. 100 years of scientific research up until about May 2020 all said the same thing. Then, suddenly....it all changed! Except that the government's own page on masks says 'the evidence is weak and the effect is likely to be small'.

Sorry to burst the bubble if an obviously anxious person, OP, but frightened people believing thats masks work us the reason we have a mandate for the horrid filth rags.

If masks don't work why do surgeons wear them during operations?