Covid positive family next door accidentally threw ball into my tiny garden

[StuffCovid]

It bounced and rolled.I'm CEV.

Do I:

1. Chuck it back and ask then not to kick the ball against my fence but on the other side to the non-CEV neighbours!
2. Say nothing, but wear gloves and then wash my hands thoroughly and spray the grass with dettol kitchen spray
3. Put a knife in it, and bin it, like DH suggests
4. Stroll out there and simply chuck it back and don't worry, it's outdoors, just wash my hands with soap and that's it.

PS, I wouldn't really take option 3, it must be hard for them being cooped up for 10 days over the summer holiday.

@onebeauplace

I think if you are CEV or live with others that are it’s still very much a worry?

It wouldn't be if people had bothered to read up about the actual risk of surface transmission, which is basically non existent.

Quite 🙈🤨

@Lilifer what I meant was when you are CEV or live with someone that is (the people that couldn’t even leave the house during the first lockdown) then you wouldn’t want to take the slightest risk however daft it sounds to others. 🤷‍♀️ that’s all.

[quote Sparklingbrook]@Lilifer what I meant was when you are CEV or live with someone that is (the people that couldn’t even leave the house during the first lockdown) then you wouldn’t want to take the slightest risk however daft it sounds to others. 🤷‍♀️ that’s all.[/quote]
I know Sparklingbrook and it's not that it sounds daft, it just makes me sad that people have developed such fear and anxiety now to such an extent that a football from their neighbours' garden has acquired the risk status akin to a time bomb.

All these CEV people lived lives before covid, they were probably extra careful around flu season or other winter bugs but I'm guessing for the most part they were able to live fairly normal lives and never once had to worry about the sort of things that worry them now, such as a football from over their next door neighbour.

Regular hand washing protects against the very small risk from infection from surface and that is infitesimally small. Primarily risk is aerosol borne, you take the vaccine and avoid crowded indoor spaces and mask up if you're CEV, that's all you can do and that will likely keep you free from serious illness hospitalision from covid.

It's an old article, but this study might reassure you OP. Surface transmission on sports equipment was found to be very low risk, with tennis balls being one of the least risky things.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56007908

@Lilifer it might be case of not wanting all the shielding of last year and all the being careful to have been all for nothing for the slightest (however tiny) risk.
I have a friend who is CEV, their GP said ‘you really don’t want to get this’ last year so I think it can be hard in that respect. Not wanting to do anything to put yourself at risk and undo all the good work.
The hand washing thing is quite alarming in that it should have been a normal thing prior to Covid. People needing to be told is a bit

Sparklingbrook yes I get that. But they presumably have been CEV before covid, and I'm assuming that they led a reasonably normal life before then whereas now they are caught up in this limiting anxiety ridden mindset that is going to seriously limit their quality of life, it is almost like a form of PTSD. It's a dreadful legacy of this illness and I cannot see it abating any time soon, and I see quite a lot of this sort of anxiety too amongst people who are not CEV too.

@Lilifer

Sparklingbrook yes I get that. But they presumably have been CEV before covid, and I'm assuming that they led a reasonably normal life before then whereas now they are caught up in this limiting anxiety ridden mindset that is going to seriously limit their quality of life, it is almost like a form of PTSD. It's a dreadful legacy of this illness and I cannot see it abating any time soon, and I see quite a lot of this sort of anxiety too amongst people who are not CEV too.

I suppose hearing your GP say ‘you really don’t want to get this’ about Covid specifically when they’ve never said that about any other virus is a bit ‘yikes’. And there’s a huge range in risk depending on why they’re CEV. They have said that the vaccine may not be completely effective for people with certain cancers for instance. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of CEV people and indeed their loved ones will be seeking counselling at some point.

I suppose hearing your GP say ‘you really don’t want to get this’ about Covid specifically when they’ve never said that about any other virus is a bit ‘yikes’. And there’s a huge range in risk depending on why they’re CEV.

If your CEV through your immune system being shot to pieces, which mine is, you'd have been told this for quite a few other things, so wouldn't be any surprise.

Covid was just added to my list.

Not no risk at all but negligible, especially if you wash your hands straight after handling it.

@PhilCornwall1

I suppose hearing your GP say ‘you really don’t want to get this’ about Covid specifically when they’ve never said that about any other virus is a bit ‘yikes’. And there’s a huge range in risk depending on why they’re CEV.

If your CEV through your immune system being shot to pieces, which mine is, you'd have been told this for quite a few other things, so wouldn't be any surprise.

Covid was just added to my list.

She hadn't been told this for 'quite a few other things'. That was the point, it was a surprise. But it's not her immune system that is the problem.