COVID-19 Sanitary Practices

Excellent video showing how germs spread from your hands and how to wash them EFFECTIVELY.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/health-51637561/coronavirus-watch-how-germs-spread


TP section and Lysol section at stop and shop.


I guess the panic buying has reached us. 



Why toilet paper?

Why not mayonnaise?


People buying up all the toilet paper are full of siht 


yahooyahoo said:

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

The key is to wash your hands correctly.  No one does it correctly.  If you're washing your hands for 5 seconds, that's wrong.

 Singing a song helps you wash longer.  

Helpful poster, or make your own at washyourlyrics.com


Restaurant dining advice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/03/10/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-dining-out-in-the-age-of-coronavirus/

Credit cards can be an issue. To minimize that risk, I think its  helpful to allow payment at your table using a contatless portable payment terminal. Many card issuers will give you a contactless card on request. Like Discover:

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/help-center/faqs/contactless.html

Condiment containers are a risk. So is cutlery at buffets.


drummerboy said:

Why toilet paper?

Why not mayonnaise?

 Have you ever tried wiping your butt with mayonnaise? 

Seriously though, I suspect people in general under buy toilet paper. In the NYC Metro, where people are used to living in postage size apartments with no storage space, I suspect this is particularly true.


BG9 said:

Restaurant dining advice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/03/10/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-dining-out-in-the-age-of-coronavirus/

Credit cards can be an issue. To minimize that risk, I think its  helpful to allow payment at your table using a contatless portable payment terminal. Many card issuers will give you a contactless card on request. Like Discover:

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/help-center/faqs/contactless.html

Condiment containers are a risk. So is cutlery at buffets.

In a local restaurant on Saturday, I was handed a touch screen device to complete paying for my meal, including setting the tip.  On reflection, maybe I should have jumped up and shouted, "Get that thing away from me, are you trying to kill me?"

Actually, I just washed up after dinner, which I do anyway, and was probably a more useful thing to do.


Menus are some of the dirtiest things in a restaurant. Even my 13 yr old will go and wash his hands after handing back the menu.


blackcat said:

Menus are some of the dirtiest things in a restaurant. Even my 13 yr old will go and wash his hands after handing back the menu.

This is absolutely true, and I've read it in other places as well. That being said, one can easily drive oneself crazy. Should we wash our hands again after handling the ketchup bottle? The salt shaker? After every time we touch a credit card or push an elevator button or handle an item on a store shelf? Where does one draw the line? 

I had a brief conversation today with someone who was extremely agitated because she works in a large office with someone married to someone who works in another large office where one worker tested positive for the virus. 

I think the constant bombardment from the media, especially with the emphasis on fatalities, is making us all a little crazy.


Just recommended by Mike Pence, now how often do we see that posted here.

For information, see coronavirus.gov



I feel like we're collectively sitting in an exam room and waiting for the doctor to come in and tell us how bad it is. The incubation period on the virus is producing a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. It's here and lots of people have been exposed but it hasn't exploded into full-blown cases yet.


My husband has likened this stage of the epidemic to the Phoney War period of WW2. We know it's coming, but not much action yet. Sort of the eerie silence before the storm.



If you're celebrating this weekend, follow CDC recommendations: "When you go out in public, keep away from others who are sick, limit close contact and wash your hands often."


blackcat said:

Menus are some of the dirtiest things in a restaurant. Even my 13 yr old will go and wash his hands after handing back the menu.

The restaurants that manage to stay open need to shift over to paper menus, like you get when you order takeout.

As for ketchup and other condiments, use them once and then wipe your hands with an alcohol towelette. The restaurant should try to supply the towelettes as is done by many BBQ places.

If it got bad I would not dine out.


If the Covid doesn't get me, I fear I will succumb to some sort of cracked hand spread contagion.  I've got lotion going 24/7 but my knuckles still bleed when I make a fist.


What are people doing when they run out of hand sanitizer? I prefer soap and water but that's not always possible.


cubby said:

What are people doing when they run out of hand sanitizer? I prefer soap and water but that's not always possible.

 https://www.google.com/search?channel=tus2&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=diy+hand+sanitizer


Soap is preferable to sanitizers / alcohol.

The science of soap - here's how it kills the coronavirus | Pall Thordarson

Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days. Disinfectants, liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol are all useful at getting rid of them - but they are not quite as good as normal soap.


I'm bumping this and reminding people what dave posted last. If you have soap and water, save the hand sanitizer! It works better than sanitizer.

I keep a pump bottle of sanitizer in my car for when I don't have access to a sink to wash my hands. But at home or at work I wash my hands.


Yeah, there's no point in using sanitizer at home. I need to remember to leave some in my car.


Just got some good advice from twitter:

if you're trying to figure out how to change your behavior, think as if you're infected and want to avoid infecting others, rather than the opposite.


drummerboy said:

Just got some good advice from twitter:

if you're trying to figure out how to change your behavior, think as if you're infected and want to avoid infecting others, rather than the opposite.

 Good advice!  


mrincredible said:

drummerboy said:

Just got some good advice from twitter:

if you're trying to figure out how to change your behavior, think as if you're infected and want to avoid infecting others, rather than the opposite.

 Good advice!  

 I thought so too! Makes things a lot easier.


I think we'll designate a specific section of kitchen counter for putting down groceries or bags from outside. Then it's easier to keep that one spot cleaned regularly.

I brought home some stuff from CVS yesterday and I've left it sitting in bags on the kitchen table since then. I guess I could give it a spritz with lysol before putting it away.  

This must be what a someone with a true germophobia feels like every day.  I'm starting to look at everything that comes in from outside the house and imagine somebody in the store coughed on it five minutes before I got there.


I know the surgeon general said mask are not needed by the general public. He's done the public a disservice.

Third, of course masks work — maybe not perfectly and not all to the same degree, but they provide some protection. Their use has always been advised as part of the standard response to being around infected people, especially for people who may be vulnerable. World Health Organization officials wear masks during their news briefings. That was the reason I had bought a few in early January — I had been conducting research in Hong Kong, which has a lot of contact with mainland China, and expected to go back. I had studied and taught about the sociology of pandemics and knew from the SARS experience in 2003 that health officials in many high-risk Asian countries had advised wearing masks.

Fourth, the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. told the public to wear masks if they were sick. However, there is increasing evidence of asymptomatic transmission, especially through younger people who have milder cases and don’t know they are sick but are still infectious. Since the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. do say that masks lessen the chances that infected people will infect others, then everyone should use masks. If the public is told that only the sick people are to wear masks, then those who do wear them will be stigmatized and people may well avoid wearing them if it screams “I’m sick.” Further, it’s very difficult to be tested for Covid-19 in the United States. How are people supposed to know for sure when to mask up?

Fifth, places like Hong Kong and Taiwan that jumped to action early with social distancing and universal mask wearing have the pandemic under much greater control, despite having significant travel from mainland China. Hong Kong health officials credit universal mask wearing as part of the solution and recommend universal mask wearing. In fact, Taiwan responded to the coronavirus by immediately ramping up mask production.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html

In Hong Kong those not seen to be taking the restrictions seriously, particularly not wearing masks, which has been the community response, have been shamed. The Apple Daily newspaper published a front page targeting “westerners who don’t wear masks, walking around freely”. It depicted a group of people outside a bar drinking and smoking, which prompted much nationwide debate and sparked an online campaign called #wearafuckingmask.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/fears-lockdown-parties-will-increase-global-spread-of-coronavirus

Taiwan ramped up mask production. As did China. How much have we ramped up? Or are we waiting for China to send them to us?

Meanwhile tests are still very difficult to get unless you're "special." If you get tested you may wait 5 to 7 days for results.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/coronavirus-testing-elite.html

We are so unprepared.


CNN is reporting that in the absence of masks, doctors should wear a bandana or scarf.

Hmm, where did I hear that before?


An awful lot of the transmission comes from contact with the eyes.  If people were serious about avoiding this they would be wearing lab goggles, not masks.


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