If you washed your shopping are you still doing so?

[HJ40]

Not looking for a pile on from those who never did because there are plenty of those threads already.

I chose to dunk everything in Milton because back at the start of covid, so much was unknown. I was pregnant and scared. DH & I were able to work from home and our DC1 was at home when nursery was closed. We were perfectly, totally, isolated so it made sense to wash the shopping as our only possible point of exposure.

And then the habit has stuck because it's actually no hassle and better to be on the safe side.

But more than a a year on, DC1 has been back at nursery every day for 14months now and DC2 is about to start. We're going out and about, albeit cautiously, but fairly normally. DH & I are AZ double jabbed but too young for the booster. DH will soon have to return to commuting by train at least two days per week and I will be going back into my office.

I'm wondering if the time has come to stop? Given all our other potential contact points, shopping seems pretty low down the risk list.

Here in lies a path to anxiety and mental illness, if you're going to get Covid-19 you'll get it from a human being not a bunch of bananas 🍌

[quote Miarara]@AnnieSnap just out of interest wouldn't it going into the freezer kill anything anyway?

I wash fresh foods before we eat them, things in multipacks I take the outer packaging off, anything else bread, cereal pasta etc just goes in the cupboard as normal.[/quote]
No, not at all. Virus can be frozen and thawed out still active.

I did it at the height of lockdown madness, but then my family (who all thought I was mad) pointed out to me I was causing myself more distress by doing this than I would by not doing it, and it was exacerbating my food hygiene anxiety (which I do suffer from).

And those people who say it doesn't take long can't buy very much. It was very stressful. There are some things that can't be washed like bread from the bakery so you have to take it out of the paper wrapper, put it on an uncontaminated surface and then wash your hands. Or the box with the eggs in. Or the plastic wrapping for bagels that isn't watertight. Every surface that the shopping or bags touch has to be disinfected. I mean, the whole thing is obviously nonsense, and I was so much happier once I stopped.

Never washed my shopping.

We did in the early days but covid has long since been shown to be airborn and does not transmit by fomites.
I do still wash my hands a bit more when I have been out.

Never saw the point.

It can transmit by fomites, its just much more likely to do it by air. It's reasonable not to wash shopping, not reasonable to tell people fomite transmission is impossible. If you've an infected person isolating within the house, washing your hands after handling their cutlery, for instance, would still be important.

@coolasfcuk

It can transmit by fomites, its just much more likely to do it by air. It's reasonable not to wash shopping, not reasonable to tell people fomite transmission is impossible. If you've an infected person isolating within the house, washing your hands after handling their cutlery, for instance, would still be important.

Wouldn't bother with all of that either. I'd rather just accept that if one person in the house gets it so will everyone else, unless there's someone particularly vulnerable.

Had plastic sheeting in the hall, a Dettol spay for quarantining shoes and a front room shopping wash and parcel quarantine station. Was nuts. Nothing now - that was a bonkers time. Though in all fairness there was a lot we didn't know then.

Yeah I'd stop now. They'd have told us to keep doing it if it was effective.

We did at the start - shopping, parcels etc but definitely not now. Haven't got covid throughout and I get a lot sent here 😅

If you have to waste days of your life doing this then crack on, no skin off my nose.

But PLEASE for the love of all that's good and holy, do not use those dreadful single use plastic wipes doing it.

We washed ours at the beginning when we knew less about the likelihood of surface transmission. It took ages 😄!

Never did it and can’t believe people still are. To be honest it’s neurotic and so far from normal behavior. It’s another example of the huge difference between people who had to go out to work throughout and those that had the luxury of staying at home and having things brought to them! I was pregnant at during lockdown 1 and wasn’t in the slightest bit concerned about covid. Also unless you eat packaging it’s such a pointless exercise, just wash your hands.

No, of course not! I’m asthmatic and I was very worried about Covid and was taking precautions several weeks before the government started to grasp the seriousness of it. I washed / quarantined anything which came into the house until two weeks after my first vaccination. I then forced myself to get a grip and stop doing this. It only took one week of not catching covid from unwashed groceries for me to relax.

Now, I’m safely double jabbed & getting on with my life normally including eating out & using public transport, apart from foreign travel, obv.

No, we're not. We stopped when we were three weeks past first vaccination, figuring it was such a low risk at that point it wasn't worth it anymore.

It's such a relief - god I hated it!

@vera99

Had plastic sheeting in the hall, a Dettol spay for quarantining shoes and a front room shopping wash and parcel quarantine station. Was nuts. Nothing now - that was a bonkers time. Though in all fairness there was a lot we didn't know then.

I vaguely remember I would come in from work, strip all my clothes off in the hallway and put them straight into the washing machine then immediately going for a shower. Shoes had to stay in the porch.

That seems nuts now, but sort of made sense at the time. Like washing the shopping and quarantining the post.

Sorry but this sounds absolutely bonkers.
We never did this, despite me being in the CEV category.
Besides it being crazy, who has time for it??

No, never washed or quarantined anything. That way madness lies imo.

I did a few times. Would also strip and shower as soon as I got in from the shops. Looking back, it was over the top for me and I am glad I stopped. Nowadays, it is a miracle if I even wash my hands when I get home from the shops.

I cannot believe people are still washing their shopping. You have a child in nursery-that’s a huge risk. Just get on with your life.

If you leave the house for any reason it is utterly pointless. Time to stop

I never did any food shop washing/ didn't isolate any delivery parcels/ if I went outside I'd didnt strip in the hallway and have a shower/ didnt spray my shoes with bleach/ disnt even wipe trolley handles etc.

I didnt catch it

I'm wondering if the time has come to stop

The time to stop was about a week after your started doing it, probably. So yes.

You know there were loads of threads about it on here, so did you never read anything debunking the idea that fomite transmission was a thing? Sanitiser in shops has been covid theatre from the start.

Might stop you getting norovirus I suppose, although I don't think hand sanitiser works for that. Milton might, though.

@WoozySnoozy

Yeah I'd stop now. They'd have told us to keep doing it if it was effective.

they never told us to do it in the first place!