AIBU to wonder if you still do these things with covid around?!

[Rainbowabacus1]

AIBU to wonder if you still do these things with covid and other viruses and bacteria about or if you’re more cautious these days.

Some examples:
-filling your car with petrol without wearing gloves to touch the handle of the pump.
-using a basket or trolley without wearing gloves/sanitizing first
-touching door handles and taps in public e.g. when using the toilet etc

Surely if someone is touching those things without precautions such as sanitization or gloves, their risk of catching something is higher than someone who is taking those extra precautions.

How long could germs live On those sorts If surfaces if they were not sanitized?

YABU: I don’t take any extra precautions
YANBU: I DO take extra precautions, you’d be mad not to

I just sanitize my hands afterwards and wash them with soap and water when I get the chance.

@KaleJuicer

I have said YABU as I wash / sanitise my hands AFTER doing all these things, and have done so for the last 15 years or so. Accordingly, I haven’t had to change my behaviour. Wearing a mask is new though.

Same here. I’ll certainly continue to wear masks when I am actively ill with colds etc from now on - I think that’s a kind thing to do.

I just wash my hands throughly as soon after doing those things as I can. I use a sleeve to turn off taps & open toilet doors after washing my hands.

It is quite difficult to catch from a surface. I never washed my groceries or wore gloves. I did use to wipe down the trolley handle but I don't anymore. I wash/sanitise my hands after leaving a shop and I avoid touching my face when out. I didn't stop wearing a mask when restrictions stopped, however, even though I hate them.

Nope. I do none of those. Haven't used sanitizer for months and only did then if shops specifically asked me too. I'm a teacher, been in amongst hundreds of kids. Haven't had Covid or anything else for that matter.

I sanitise after all those things, but I did before covid anyway.

Not much has changed in practice. I just wear a mask now

Well, you could have a handful of Covid virus on your hands but, unless you then smear it all over your mucus membranes ie. Eyes, mouth or nose (assuming social etiquette discourages you from exposing your ladyparts in public), and assuming your hand skin is intact, providing you wash your hands, that handful of virus is unlikely to do you harm.
Me? I'm immunosuppressed. I go nowhere unless essential, and try not to breathe while I'm there.

I wash my hands when I get home. I have never worn gloves besides winter ones if it’s cold.

I don't wipe my basket/trolly, I sanitise after I finish paying through. And I do sanitise after touching the exterior toilet door- people are gross and don't wash their hands.

Otherwise, not really. I like having loads of hand sanitiser around now- hope that continues! I like to use it between touching money etc.

I don't do any of those things.

I wash my hands after using the toilet and before preparing/eating food and not really in between unless they are dirty.

I only use hand sanitizer if I am required - if someone is policing it at a shop door way for instance. I haven't caught covid yet.

Worry more about norovirus than covid in terms of surfaces tbh.

Fomite transmission has been thoroughly debunked. Someone infectious would need to sneeze directly onto a trolley handle or (more likely) into their hand, wrap it around a trolley handle, then I would need to (quite soon after) grab that handle, then rub my hand- and their sneeze- across my face.

I can prevent this by not touching my face. And/or regularly washing/sanitising my hands.

So yea. Yabu.

@Justkeeppedaling

The Covid virus is airborne. You can't catch it from a petrol pump, a supermarket trolley handle or a toilet door.

Where do you think the airborne particles go? They land, they don't go poof in a cloud of smoke'

Why do you think hand washing is recommended?

At the beginning of this pandemic I was religious about cleaning hands, remember to use disposable gloves, sanitise light switches etc etc
I stopped within a few months because I got better at not touching my face and also I don't think surface transmission is a real cause for concern with this virus.
All the sanitising being done at venues and shops is a pointless and expensive exercise nowadays and bad for the environment. As humans, we probably caused more irreversible environmental damage since the pandemic started compared to direct covid related loss of human life.

I often pull my sleeve over my hand when touching door handles or pushing buttons, especially in toilets. But I've always done that, it's less about Covid than general grossness.

I use shopping baskets as usual, although I rarely go to supermarkets as get it all delivered now. I don't use sanitiser much any more, except in medical settings or places where they really prompt you to use it.

I generally wear masks when legally required (stopped wearing them in July but have worn them since it legally mandated again), and haven't been limiting my social life at all (nightclubs, concerts, public transport). I've had three jabs and never tested positive for Covid.

Not sanitising anymore. Now we know more I don't bother. I am washing my hands more frequently lately. I had got a bit slack..

Where is the option for "I did these things anyway because I'm hygienic"?

Hygiene is one thing.. OTT constant washing and wipin and wearing gloves to do normal everyday things is another. I dont make my kids wash their hands before eating unless there's actual dirt on them. We have a 5 second rule for dropped food. They are two of the healthiest kids I know in terms of picking up sniffles and colds. In 12 years there's been two sets of antibiotics issued for them in total. Thats it. We are, IMHO, waay over the top now with all this, even before Covid.

I sanitise my hands after doing these things but I don’t sanitise trolley handles etc.
It here were lots of people going nuts at the start of the pandemic about wearing gloves, and saying that was spreading covid. Why was that?
I never understood as you can spread particles on your hands whether you have gloves on or not? Touching is touching with or without gloves.

I've never done any of that and never will. I wash my hands after I use the toilet and before I eat. That's all I do.

YABU.

I wash my hands regularly. Work patient facing in the NHS. Our PPE guidance is pretty clear and we don’t even need to wear gloves for patient contact if not going near mucous membranes or fluids. Haven’t had covid.

I've never done any of those things. Never in my life and not in the last 18 months either.

YABU

Except maybe the petrol pump but that is because mine is diesel and it stinks but I have noticed my local one isn't providing the gloves anymore

I would always wash my hands after touching door handles and using the toilet That I can happily say I have always done.
I don't wear gloves to fill up with petrol buy do use a bit of hand sanitise when I am done (I keep it in the car).
I don't sanitise shopping trolley etc but do use hand gel on the way out after I have paid and finished my shop.

I don't sanitize things or wear gloves. Mostly because covid is airborne so sanitizing surfaces is off limited use. I do wear a mask whenever I'm in a shop, and in school corridors. I wish we could have mask wearing in classrooms as the kids and I are at constant risk of catching covid because we're forced into close contact in a mostly unventilated room (if the windows are open it's freezing so I open them for short periods rather than keeping them open all the time)

I drove myself crazy about things like this during peak lockdown last year. After living in a house with my dc while he had it and not catching it myself I feel a bit more relaxed. Opening windows, social distancing and masks are more important. Obviously I wash my hands thoroughly after touching anything like this but I don't think surfaces are the main routes of transmission.