Coronavirus prep

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  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    (Not glove-hoarding, BTW. My local hospital system was taking donations of unopened boxes of gloves at first, so I donated the unopened one of the big 2-pack I'd recently bought at Costco for crafts use, but kept the open one. Not using them often any more, but have them ready, including a small bag of them in the car, just in case. Suspect using gloves to avoid getting paint on my face/clothes is good practice for not spreading viruses to my face/clothes, though not a perfect analog.)

    I don't think there's currently a shortage, is there? I got a bunch of them because my cat is taking a medicine that you rub into his ear wearing gloves, and so I ordered a package of gloves before picking up the medicine, only to learn that a glove was provided with the medicine. I don't use gloves, so would be happy to donate the box I bought if someone wanted it, but I don't think anyone does anymore.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,166 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    (Not glove-hoarding, BTW. My local hospital system was taking donations of unopened boxes of gloves at first, so I donated the unopened one of the big 2-pack I'd recently bought at Costco for crafts use, but kept the open one. Not using them often any more, but have them ready, including a small bag of them in the car, just in case. Suspect using gloves to avoid getting paint on my face/clothes is good practice for not spreading viruses to my face/clothes, though not a perfect analog.)

    I don't think there's currently a shortage, is there? I got a bunch of them because my cat is taking a medicine that you rub into his ear wearing gloves, and so I ordered a package of gloves before picking up the medicine, only to learn that a glove was provided with the medicine. I don't use gloves, so would be happy to donate the box I bought if someone wanted it, but I don't think anyone does anymore.

    No idea. Just a bit of pandemic nostalgia (?!) on my part, I guess. 😆 There are rumors that some of the local hospitals are short on some things again, but I haven't checked their web site here to see if they're once again desperate enough to accept donations from the public. Everything useful I had went to them (or the local robotics club for face-shield making) back at the start, anyway.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,098 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    SModa61 wrote: »
    ythannah wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    SModa61 wrote: »
    My "risky" behavior is that I do go into stores and do my own shopping. Am I shopping like pre-COVID (which might have included "window shopping" behavior in stores, or even going to the grocery store more than once a day)? No. I have chatted with my 29 yr old daughter about this and she considers my actions of going into a grocery store risky and I am typically blocked from visiting for at least a week after. My logic on the safety is that I actually know/recognize the majority of staff in the grocery store, from Pre-covid, and they are all still there. Those workers that I have chatted with on this topic, have been working in the store throughout the pandemic and have never been sick (or so they believe). And please understand that these conversations include people that do have what qualifies as visible preexisting conditions (sex, age, weight). My thoughts are that if my grocery store were that dangerous, these individuals would have all had COVID at least once by now.

    As for delivery and store pickup, like @rheddmobile, in May I tried a Peapod delivery (items missing), quickly added an afternoon whole foods pickup (got items but not what I would have chosen), tried for Peapod pickup the next day for remaining missing items (again missing), got disgusted and went into the store from the parking lot. There on the shelves were the "missing items" as well as items I regularly purchase at that store but were not offered online. I filled another whole cart. It was at that point that I began doing the in person shopping for my parents, daughter's family, as well as myself for the next two months. Eventually, daughter went back to her own way, and parents learned how to online shop on their own and we happy with what they received. While I do shop in store, I do limit the frequency that I shop, and I chose best days/time of day for least number of customers. I do not go into the store if there is a line waiting to go in, since that means the store is already at max capacity, and I come back another time. Heading into xmas, I did have to do store pickup for groceries during the week before, but I preemptively shopped the week before for the majority of items. Store pickup went fine for the limited list, but of course two hours after pickup I remember that one or two items I forgot to order and there is a $35 order minimum......

    I believe quickly shopping while all people are masked, in a large building with lots of airflow, is probably moderately safe. However I would caution you not to assume your workers are fine. A study (can’t remember where? Boston?) which tested all grocery store workers found that 20% had Covid without knowing it and the largest risk factor was not whether the worker was cautious but whether they had a customer-facing job. You work with customers, you get sick, no matter how careful.

    Yeah I don't consider grocery shopping in a large Walmart or similar especially risky. I almost always use self check anytime even before Covid so have limited contact with employees.

    I haven't used self check since Covid because I noticed that no one was cleaning them between customers and there is a lot of screen-touching required at each transaction. At least the debit machine (and other areas) gets wiped down by the cashier at a regular checkout and I'm using tap with my card anyway so there's no common surface touching at all. I think almost all checkouts here have cashiers behind plexiglass now.

    I don't use the self checkout because it is any safer from a sanitation point of view. I use it because I am fast and can check myself out faster, unless I have a full basket. As for it being dirty, @ythannah you are right that they do not sanitize between guests but they no longer sanitize the shopping carts anymore either. So once I am inside the store, it is up to me to protect myself. Working method is single credit card in my pant pocket for easy access and sanitizing wipes/gel/spray for my hands. All and all, I think I am in better shape than the person wearing gloves inside the store to make themselves "safer" but they continually touch their face and mask with their gloved hands. At least I am not fooling myself. I believe my actions have better logic to them.

    I see. Carts and baskets are still sanitized here. And I find the self checkout a lot slower because I have to answer a ton of questions on the screen and there's quite a lengthy pause before you get to the next screen -- all of which is done verbally with a cashier. Produce is a PITA, and you can't use coupons without calling for an assistant. Plus I'm not as adept at finding the bar codes for scanning as a cashier is!

    If that were my experience, I wouldn't do it either.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2020
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    (Not glove-hoarding, BTW. My local hospital system was taking donations of unopened boxes of gloves at first, so I donated the unopened one of the big 2-pack I'd recently bought at Costco for crafts use, but kept the open one. Not using them often any more, but have them ready, including a small bag of them in the car, just in case. Suspect using gloves to avoid getting paint on my face/clothes is good practice for not spreading viruses to my face/clothes, though not a perfect analog.)

    I don't think there's currently a shortage, is there? I got a bunch of them because my cat is taking a medicine that you rub into his ear wearing gloves, and so I ordered a package of gloves before picking up the medicine, only to learn that a glove was provided with the medicine. I don't use gloves, so would be happy to donate the box I bought if someone wanted it, but I don't think anyone does anymore.

    No idea. Just a bit of pandemic nostalgia (?!) on my part, I guess. 😆

    LOL

    I suppose I should check with local hospitals as I haven't opened the box and have no use for it. Or if not, offer it up on NextDoor.
  • lokihen
    lokihen Posts: 382 Member
    edited December 2020
    I just checked our local hospital website and they are still asking for mask donations but nothing else. Because I used to work there, I know what they use; PAPR for high-risk situations and paper or cloth masks for everything else. What I have, P100, they don't use, but I would wear it if I had to go in.

    I like to use gloves when I'm disinfecting items before bringing them inside my house, fewer harsh chemicals on my skin. It reminds me to pay attention to what I'm touching, plus there's no worries about contaminates under my fingernails.
  • gesundundmunter
    gesundundmunter Posts: 227 Member
    edited December 2020
    Target self checkout sanitizes between customers.

  • lokihen
    lokihen Posts: 382 Member
    https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccines-questions-social-distance-mask-transmission

    This is a decent summary of what has been tested and what isn't known yet about the vaccines. Also covers some FAQs.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,166 Member
    NPR story tonight went head-on to "what did scientists know about Covid transmission and when did they know it". Text summary & full audio (4 minutes) at

    https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/950886165/pandemic-advances-scientific-understanding-of-viruses-air-transmission

    Sample quote, from a virus transmission researcher at Virginia Tech: "So back in January, the understanding of how viruses spread through the air was really primitive and incorrect. . . . There were a very small number of people in the world, I think, who really understood at that time how viruses spread through the air."

    There's more, about the early research and how it influenced public-health behavioral recommendations.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    Speaking of hand sanitizer. Living in a cold winter climate (Minnesota), I’ve always steered away from it. Until covid. I’ve got a real issue with dry, chapped, cracking hands. The hand sanitizer makes it worse. Believe me, I’ve tried everything for softening my hands. It’s really bad this winter. Can anyone relate, and does anything work?