Wiping groceries in pandemic

[Peony88]

Did everyone follow gov. advice during pandemic & wipe all online groceries deliveries? Was anyone perplexed by the about turn when it was suddenly OK not to bother, & wondering why there was such distinct advice to do so in the first place? Has it badly affected anyone to the extent they feel anxious about touching unwiped groceries now - even if they know it is "irrational"? Shielded to protect elderly Mum in pandemic but she tragically died near end - not covid - but she wiped down groceries religiously (war child generation - obeyed gov. "orders") & I put them away etc. We could have done without the hassle & fear. Now I feel huge sorrow & anger about it all - & the gov's obvious double standards & betrayal that subsequently came to light & its effect on vulnerable people. Thank you.

OP I am sorry about your mum. It seems that your grief is wrapped up in feelings about covid - understandably; it was an uncertain and difficult time that coincided with this very painful loss for you. Sometimes it's easier to feel anger than it is to feel grief, especially anger at an amorphous target like "advice" or "the government".

Trouble is though that just like a moth battering itself against a lightbulb it doesn't understand, you could go on forever and wear yourself out, without getting to where you need to be, which is to be able to move through the world and experience full life and all the emotions you can access, even though you have and always will have lost someone very dear to you. It sounds like you would benefit from having someone to guide you there, maybe a therapist, and I hope you do find your way OP, it truly is worth it and you are worth it.

I'm sorry you're struggling, OP, but this was not any kind of official or government advice. In fact, the official line was that the odds of catching covid that way was very low. It was social media advice.

I think it's very easy to forget how little was known about the virus at the time. It was a while before it was understood to be airborne, and I do remember there being lots of confusion about how long the germs could survive on surfaces.

Exactly, people didn't know and they were frightened. Easy to look back and judge with the knowledge we have now.

Mind, I will forever judge the manager who, on his very infrequent trips to the office, spoke to us through a window, like we were some great bunch of untouchables. There you go OP. At least your lovely mum only worried that her shopping may have been unclean.

Absolutely not. I actively mocked my MIL for washing her tins of chopped tomatoes and toothpaste tubes in the bath.

I had to start wiping them because many of them were treated with something that made me sick. I still have to do it. Some packages have to go outside to air out.

something in the industrial sanitizer spray they put on things in factories and warehouses now gives me hives and asthma attacks.

No, I didn't ever wipe groceries.

I had chemo during 2021, my immune system was wiped out, yet I didn't catch covid until 2024.

As for groceries, I didn't give them a second thought, just basic hygiene of hand washing after chores, the same as normal.

Why are you still worrying about covid OP? Your body has had nearly 6 years to develop immunity. You will have come into contact with the latest strain and fought it off without noticing. I'm sorry this still causes you distress and I'm sorry for your loss, but it's time to move on.

I just want to add again that I'm sorry you're having a difficult time, and I do hope you can access some help in overcoming it. But it's not a bad idea to try to understand that you've created a false narrative in your mind that's causing you to be distrustful and are trying to solve a riddle that never existed - the government did not advise wiping down groceries and then reverse. There were no double standards or betrayals around that. You've conflated social media and government In this instance.

Early advice when what was unfolding was unknown made not touching stuff or wiping down stuff very sensible. When I was doing my nursing training it was indoctrinated in to us how a virus can survive on surfaces. My training was decades ago but Hepatitis B for instance can survive on surfaces for up to 7 days. Covid was unknown and fortunately it doesn’t survive on surfaces but if it had turned out that it did then would have been so much worse.

I know we have modern medicine now so it’s hard to compare but some global pandemics have in history wiped out 50% of the population at times. Spanish flu may have killed up to 5% of the worlds population which was in my Grandmothers time, it killed more people than died in WWI.

I would seek some therapy, it was an awful and fearful time for many but depending on how we as individuals view life made the experience different for everyone. I know it didn’t bother my neighbours who carried on having lots of people round or a mass gathering that my niece who is a community nurse came upon when visiting a patient.

I never did this and I don't know of anyone who did.

It was never government advice. It was a stupid video on Youtube with a man dressed up in a lab coat.

I ignored it at the time because I spent eight years developing infection control protocols, but gosh, people still lectured me about it during Covid. 😂

It wasn't govt advice I don't think. I did for sometime. DH and I had a whole routine going - you spray , I wipe, what soaks in the sink etc.

It felt a bit overkill but on the other hand no idea what nasties are on it - from snot to insecticide even without COVID.