TIA
Jon
Discussion moved from DAK to Health & Wellbeing (leaving a link). - Chris
Thanks to Rhyd6,eyeball08,Wondergirly,bofh,johnstevens77, for Donating to support the site
SalvorHardin wrote:Everything I have read on the topic, and discovered during a conversation with a friend who is a biologist (crops, not humans), points towards the initial level of exposure to the Wuhan virus as being a major determinant of the intensity of the infection. A bit of virus on packaging IMHO poses a vastly lower risk than spending 20 minutes in close proximity to an infected person.
Most articles I've seen about the virus living for some time on various surfaces fail to mention that the ability of the virus to infect people decreases quite dramatically over time. Especially if the conditions vary over time (e.g. hot, ultraviolet light, parcels being thrown around)
Julian wrote:For packages I tend to take delivered items straight to my "quarantine room" (an unused bedroom) and leave them there for at least a day. I then go back into the quarantine room to open the box or packaging in the room, carry the then-open box into the hallway and tip the contents onto the floor outside. I then throw the box back into the quarantine room. If it's a delivery I'm really impatient to open I do all of the above without the 24 hour wait, i.e. as soon as the package is delivered I take it into the quarantine room, open it, go into the hallway to tip the contents onto the floor, and then on to the rest of the steps just outlined.
After any interaction with the quarantine room I do not close the door after me, instead I go straight to a sink to thoroughly wash my hands. After washing my hands I tear off a piece of paper towel, spray cleaner on it, and use that to both wipe down the outer door handle of the quarantine room (I never touch the inner door handle anyway) and pull the door closed. Only after that do I then go and retrieve the contents of the package from the floor (assuming I'd just opened a package as opposed to leaving a new delivery in the room).
Periodically, when the quarantine room has been un-entered for at least a week hence any virus in there should have died, I go in and break down and dispose of the accumulated cardboard packaging.
For envelopes I just leave them in the quarantine room for 3 days then bring them out and treat them as normal. I receive no letters that I feel the need to read immediately whereas stuff I buy I am more impatient to get to hence my more rigorous treatment of letters on a "why not?" basis since I don't really care about the contents(*).
I don't do any of the above because I am massively paranoid about the virus, it's because when we first entered lockdown and I began to look for things to entertain me I thought that I might as well develop protocols more for my own distraction/amusement than anything else and the above procedures really aren't very inconvenient so I continue to use them. I'm not always that diligent about going in regularly to break down the cardboard though so there's an awful lot of old packaging in there right now to get rid of probably dating back about a month. I really must sort that out early next week.
- Julian
(*) As an aside, my volume of physical mail is probably 10% of what it was pre-lockdown. I get about 1 letter a week now at most vs an average of one a day before all this started. Unwelcome mailshots seem to have died out almost completely for me and a lot of organisations I did (and still do) have a relationship with seem to feel the need to write to me far less often which is great. Maybe with lots of people working from home it is harder for organisations to do mailshots. I really hope this state of affairs continues in the years to come.
Jonetc15 wrote:I am tired of reading my papers on-line and may well get them delivered. They will probably only be handled at the newsagent’s and by the youth delivering them. One suggestion that I’ve heard is to use gloves just for the front and back pages - in case someone has coughed or sneezed on them - and keep them in one particular place. I hardly dare ask for comments, but you’re friendly folk so I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Jonetc15 wrote: I hardly dare ask for comments
Hypster wrote:I agree with the emphasis on hand washing.
Remember though, the risk is not confined to just you and the postie, or the Amazon worker who sent it two days ago. The postie will be touching countless letterboxes, door bells, and gates on his or her round. All it takes is one infected person with poor hand hygiene to have touched one of those surfaces for the postie to pick it up and continue the transmission on the round. Wash your hands like the baked potato says...
dealtn wrote:
So how many postman have caught Covid-19, or died from it? They aren't exactly a recurring news item in the media (same as supermarket workers). This suggests this source of risk is extremely low. As you say they "will be touching countless letterboxes, door bells, and gates..." you only have to touch your own. That is a measure of how extremely small the risk is. So small you are more likely I would think to slip and injure yourself in retrieving any post, parcels, or newspapers.
If you are "vulnerable" or "shielding" I am not saying you shouldn't be ignorant of the consequences, but the risks are very small.
Hypster wrote:I don’t think I expressed my point clearly. Let me try again.
The fact that an Amazon parcel has taken two days to arrive, or that the postie is wearing gloves does not mean that the risk of picking up the virus from surfaces of the mail has diminished.
My point was that an infected person elsewhere can transmit the virus to you without the two of you ever meeting, via the posties gloved hands. And without the postie getting the virus themselves.
Return to “Health & Wellbeing”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests