Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are bubbles a covid risk?

107 replies

Beseigedbykillersquirrels · 30/05/2021 19:18

It's been beautiful here today so we took the DC down to the riverbank for a picnic. DD (2) wanted to take her bubbles and she was blowing them on and off for quite a bit of the two and a half hours we were there. It was busy enough but not packed; there was, at a guess, about 20 other families, all well spread out. Towards the end of the afternoon, a man was walking by and then approached us and said (well, more like shouted) that we shouldn't be blowing covid bubbles all over the place and that one popped near his face so he has now been exposed and will have to take the day off work until he can have a test.
I am fully prepared to be told IWBU - it honestly didn't occur to me that my child blowing bubbles could be a covid risk but I am aware that this man thought it was. Was I being unreasonable in allowing my DC to blow bubbles at the riverbank this afternoon?

OP posts:
womanity · 30/05/2021 22:31

I’ve been calling them plague packets since this began.

Given what we know now, I can’t for a second imagine it’s an actual bona fide risk, but it is very definitely carrying a bubble of toddler breath to wherever it pops.

Thoughtcontagion · 30/05/2021 22:34

We call it Kipling smog because it smells like cakes usually

Original poster
Beseigedbykillersquirrels · 30/05/2021 22:36

@WhyDoesItAlways

Can't be any worse than all those people vaping in public. That stuff travels far and you can tell when you breathe it in because it smells disgusting Envy
Oh my goodness you are absolutely right. Yes, I agree with you 100%! I bet if DD was a man having a vape by the river this man wouldn't have said a thing.
OP posts:
shouldistop · 30/05/2021 22:37

Covid bubbles and packages of breath 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Fucking hell. In a couple of years time people are going to look back and realise how bonkers they were.

WouldBeGood · 30/05/2021 22:40

@shouldistop

Covid bubbles and packages of breath 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Fucking hell. In a couple of years time people are going to look back and realise how bonkers they were.
A big yes to this!

Bonkers

Bvop · 30/05/2021 22:41

Okay. There is some interesting science here.

From a fluid dynamics perspective, Covid is transmission is very unlikely in normal circumstances when outdoors as breath containing aerosol droplets with virus is dispersed quickly. Your dd is very unlikely to infect anyone outdoors, particularly an adult, due to the difference in height.

But bubbles are different! They contain concentrated exhaled breath. If your dd is infected, then rather than having the droplets of virus disperse quickly, by blowing bubbles she’s spreading little concentrated spheres of exhaled virus particles, which will disperse only when the bubble bursts.

The other bit of science is that the bubble is made of soap, which destroys the virus, but it’s not necessarily the case that all the aerosol droplets in her exhaled breath would have reached the inner surface of the sphere.

If a load of bubbles burst in someone else’s face then it would be reasonable to consider this as a transmission route, but you’d need to test what happens to an aerosol when it’s inside a bubble (I suspect quite a bit ends up on the inner surface but that’s just a hypothesis).

So I don’t think it’d be unreasonable to object to having bubbles blown at you (I’m quite sympathetic to anyone who’s anxious due to health concerns) and it’s also not unreasonable to blow bubbles if they’re not going to land near other people. Interesting fluid dynamics questions thrown up by this thread.

ThursdayWeld · 30/05/2021 22:43

*But bubbles are different! They contain concentrated exhaled breath. If your dd is infected, then rather than having the droplets of virus disperse quickly, by blowing bubbles she’s spreading little concentrated spheres of exhaled virus particles, which will disperse only when the bubble bursts.

The other bit of science is that the bubble is made of soap, which destroys the virus, but it’s not necessarily the case that all the aerosol droplets in her exhaled breath would have reached the inner surface of the sphere*

@Bvop has explained it far better than I could. All the "LOLs!!!" on this thread by people who have very little understanding of physics are tedious. And inaccurate.

tappitytaptap · 30/05/2021 22:44

@Alconleigh

Quite a few people are just itching not to go back to normal, aren't they? I think Covid must have been the most excitement they've ever had, and they are desperate to prolong it. Bonkers. Don't worry OP, you didn't ruin everyone's afternoon.
This!! Some people are absolutely loving this, however much they try to deny it.
SapphireSeptember · 30/05/2021 22:47

Given that he was standing over you, and yelling in such a way that his spit was flying everywhere, he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Your DD was doing nothing wrong, I don't think, and he sounds like one of these people who just snaps over something tiny and then finds an easy target to vent his spleen on.

It reminds me of the woman who had a go at me while I was at work, because the spray for the trolleys was too far away, and she'd get Covid just by touching them, while standing less than metre away from me and not wearing a mask. (Obviously the thought that she could pick up the spray and take it to the trolleys hadn't occurred to her, nor the fact that we couldn't put the table with the spray on any closer to said trolleys or it would get in the way.) I couldn't think of anything to say to this, other than pointing out at least we provided something, so she said she didn't feel safe and wasn't coming here again, oh well. I don't know what she was expecting, a grovelling apology? I know Covid effected people in different ways, and working in a supermarket was driving me up the wall because of it, although since losing my job I've become far more relaxed.

MaxNormal · 30/05/2021 22:55

Your child was blowing aerosols out of her mouth, so was she contagious, she’d be spreading the virus.

What's the poor child meant to do, stop breathing? Confused

TinaYouFatLard · 30/05/2021 23:00

If we have reached a point where a 2 year old child blowing bubbles is seen as a danger rather than a joy then we are truly lost.

sweeneytoddsrazor · 30/05/2021 23:03

The lunatics have taken over the asylum is the phrase that springs to mind. Although I don't even know if that is actually an acceptable phrase anymore

musicalfrog · 30/05/2021 23:20

Well quite frankly I am outraged that the government and/or the BBC have not drawn this to our attention on the evening news.

After being told how to hug safely, the least they could do is explain to the public how young children enjoying frivolous outdoor games could threaten our very lives!! I mean, why do we pay our taxes/license fee*??

*I realise not everyone here does. Wink

toocold54 · 30/05/2021 23:25

This had never crossed my mind either! But obviously they can transmit air and virus particles when you think about it. I was popping them with my tongue earlier on (my DDs) I didn’t even think Blush

toocold54 · 30/05/2021 23:27

What's the poor child meant to do, stop breathing?

There’s a difference between breathing normally and blowing bubbles.

BusyLizzie61 · 31/05/2021 07:52

@Beseigedbykillersquirrels

It's been beautiful here today so we took the DC down to the riverbank for a picnic. DD (2) wanted to take her bubbles and she was blowing them on and off for quite a bit of the two and a half hours we were there. It was busy enough but not packed; there was, at a guess, about 20 other families, all well spread out. Towards the end of the afternoon, a man was walking by and then approached us and said (well, more like shouted) that we shouldn't be blowing covid bubbles all over the place and that one popped near his face so he has now been exposed and will have to take the day off work until he can have a test. I am fully prepared to be told IWBU - it honestly didn't occur to me that my child blowing bubbles could be a covid risk but I am aware that this man thought it was. Was I being unreasonable in allowing my DC to blow bubbles at the riverbank this afternoon?
Of course it's an increased risk. And tbh, I do think in the current climate it was a tad selfish and stupid to have done this in a public space that was so densely populated. I think that he's overreacting, but agree with the principle of what he's said yes. They're not allowed bubbles at school for this very reason.
luckylavender · 31/05/2021 07:56

@Brefugee - no one wears a mask outdoors

DeathByWalkies · 31/05/2021 07:58

It's never occurred to me before, but he does have a point. They're a great way of generating breath that carries further than it normally would.

Taking the day off work for a test is ridiculous though

shouldistop · 31/05/2021 07:58

Bvop has explained it far better than I could. All the "LOLs!!!" on this thread by people who have very little understanding of physics are tedious. And inaccurate.

I think people realise that it's possible but how likely is it that enough 'infected' bubbles would pop right in front of someone's face as they breath in for them to actually catch covid? And that's if the child was infected in the first place which is again unlikely.
People seem to have no sense of proportion anymore

TheChiefJo · 31/05/2021 08:54

I can't help laughing at all the bubble virologists on this thread. I wouldn't worry too much, OP. Even if your DD was infected and even if the soap didn't do for the viral particles, the daylight would. Unless they were special opaque bubbles that light couldn't penetrate.

Brefugee · 31/05/2021 11:28

no one wears a mask outdoors

I doubt you've seen absolutely everyone, @luckylavender but 5here you go. I have seen some people outside wearing masks (and I'm outside of UK so it's been photos). Here people definitely do wear masks outdoors on towns.

Bubbles are bad for the environment

thisisbull · 31/05/2021 11:47

Tbf we can't use bubbles in the ward I work in because they are a covid risk

ThursdayWeld · 31/05/2021 11:54

@thisisbull

Tbf we can't use bubbles in the ward I work in because they are a covid risk
There you go.
MiddleClassMother · 31/05/2021 12:00

How ridiculous! I would ignore him.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 31/05/2021 12:19

This is an important but also silly thread too. Technically everything can be a Covid risk as Covid is expelled through contagious throats onto surfaces and via water droplets through the air hence why ventilation and open air is important to minimise potential risks of exposure. Therefore it is all about degrees or likelihood of contraction and spread. Naturally you will need a source to spread and without constant accurate testing in for instance a known hot spot environment with circulating asymptomatic suffers - it is impossible to discount possibilities but it would be very very astonishing if anyone caught Covid directly via bubbles without other Covid risk mitigation measures etc. People need to understand that unlike India etc the UK has very few people relative to the population with active contagious Covid. The r rate would give some reassurance but naturally the real and live real time accuracy figure depends on voluntary recent testing and based on probable mathematical projection modelling. In short the risk from blowing a few bubbles can be a potential vector for Covid spread but the risk is relatively not massively elevated in out door settings particularly. I am not a scientific expert but just my lay mum common sense view so hopefully right but will appreciate a correction from a virologist bubble expert.