Does anyone still avoid public toilets?

[Viv0321]

Does anyone still avoid public toilets?

No, because I wash my hands! Public loos are quite safe from an infection control perspective as long as there’s soap and water.

If I did, I couldn't go out so, no.

Going and very happy they've re-opened. As someone with a (very) weak bladder, I'd even had to resort to wearing Tena pants during lockdown.

No. The ones in my local shopping centre are very clean. Only 2 people allowed in at a time and as soon as you leave the cubicle, a cleaner wipes everything down.

No, but I never did.

@JaJaDingDong

I'm a post menopausal woman in her 60s who's had three pregnancies. Avoiding public toilets is not an option.

I'm younger than you, and only have one child, but otherwise, yes this!

You can't catch covid (or other things) in public loos. And when I need to go I need to go, especially if I make the mistake of drinking too much coffee before I go out.

I have to be wetting myself before using a public toilet. I've always been funny about using public but especially now. Never use hand dryers and always use toilet roll to flush the loo and open the door with if I do have to a public toilet.

Given Covid is a far lower risk to health than many other harms, such as crossing the road, I have no problem using any form of public toilet.

More to the point, does anyone still wash their hands after going to the toilet at work or in a cafe? There is a conflict between not wanting to touch the wet and covidy tap and not wanting to be gross.

No. When you gotta go, you gotta go. I went into one recently and it had about 6 signs telling people what they must do. One of the signs said you MUST wash your hands for at least 20 seconds in hot water. This sign was above the only tap - which was a cold tap good job I had taken my own sanitiser in with me to sanitise after washing!

Fortunately as Covid is of virtually no risk relative to a hard flu year need we really get so neurotic as to debating the intricacies of hand washing and taps? Of course be sensible but for heavens sake don't propagate this Black Death nonsense implying Covid is anymore of a risk than a bad flu year.

No, if I need the toilet, I go.

Since March have only used public toilets during a long car trip. Otherwise we only choose outings where a trip to the toilet is unlikely.

Fortunately as Covid is of virtually no risk relative to a hard flu year

That's the sort of claim Twitter would have to hide. It's just factually untrue.

Do you mean you are going out but avoiding having a wee? Surely if you are out in public anyway that's more of a risk than the loo itself?

Or do you think the toilet is a particular risk? I do remember a thread on here at the height of things where a woman was worried she could be spreading coronavirus by having a piss in a bush...

God no my need to go to the toilet is far great than any worry about covid!
and i would wee myself if i chose not to use them!

Yes I do, particularly small enclosed ones but not because I'm scared of anything jumping out if the toilet bowl. It's because I assume the concentration of airborne Corona virus in such a small space would be high if I was to go in after an infected person. I avoid lifts for the same reason.

Yes but always have

Yes relative to a hard flu year it is factually true; perhaps do your research rather than dismiss out of hand as first check the ONS numbers?

Is the risk of catching covid higher in the toilet than any of the other places you go when you are out?

Yes but I did pre Covid too

the risk theoretically could be high, don't know if proven www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/health/coronavirus-toilets-flushing.html

@time4anothername if you followed someone who was positive into the cubicle and they'd had a poo ( not just a wee) not long before you went in - then as the article says the risk could be fairly high. But I think the chance of all those things happening is fairly low.
Therefore I haven't avoided public toilets but have kept my mask on, washed hands thoroughly and sanitised.

Surely noone would choose to go into a public toilet, unless you needed to use the toilet.
If you need the toilet, then the need to go, is going to be far greater than any risk from the toilets of being infected with COVID
This has got to be a none question.
If you've got to go, then you;ve got to go, but if you don't, then I can't understand why you would be going to a public toilet, even before the pandemic.

Yes - but I always did so it’s not necessarily because of Covid.

I hate public toilets, they’re filthy, sticky, smelly etc. I’m lucky in that I don’t have bladder issues and am never too far from home/work when I’m out so can safely avoid them. Here’s hoping that public bathrooms are actually cleaner post-Covid due to the increased cleaning?