Ask HN: Covid-19 is it unreasonable for my wife to ask
When I go to the market, I,
1. Where a mask 2. Where gloves 3. Strip naked in the garage and put them through the washing machine. 4. Have my shoes sprayed down with alcohol. 5. Take a shower 6. Put new clothes on
24 comments
[ 6.2 ms ] story [ 53.5 ms ] thread2. Not unreasonable, can indeed hurt:
Gloves and masks can also carry the virus onto other surfaces if not used or disposed of carefully.
3. Can't hurt. Possibly too much. I havent seen a study of virus spread on non-porous surfaces.
The virus seems to survive around three days in plastic, for example. Some are considering careful introduction of groceries to the house.
4. Cant hurt, but soap is likely better than alcohol.
5. Cant hurt.
6. ?
EDIT: it is okay to be careful, but also keep in mind people are overreacting
For instance, people are refraining from donating blood, at a time when it is needed. https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/03/23/820089376/it-s-safe...
Perhaps it would help to read the statistics about the hospitalization and death rate for the age group of the OP and SO. Some people imagine it's like Ebola.
Note that it is different if there is some old people or someone with another bad health precondition. In that case some additional measures may be helpful.
It is important to flatten the curve, but at some point it becomes an overreaction.
He was already giving her a couple of hundred a week. His co-worker only responded "divorce would cost much more than that"
There are still "happily" married to this day (15 years later).
wear: verb 1) to carry or have on the body or about the person as a covering, equipment, ornament, or the like: 2) to have or use on the person habitually: 3) to undergo gradual impairment, diminution, reduction, etc., from wear, use, attrition, or other causes (often followed by away, down, out, or off) 4) to retain shape, color, usefulness, value, etc., under wear, use, or any continued strain:; noun 5) the act of wearing; use, as of a garment: 6) the state of being worn, as on the person.
I do question the effectiveness of spraying shoes with alcohol, but I personally try to maintain a barrier between what I wear to the grocery store, and what I wear inside in the house.
Most medical workers are not wearing gowns.
For the ones who are they're also wearing masks and face shields and two pairs of gloves. There's a big difference between being a medical worker in a room with 12 people who have confirmed covid-19 infection who are unwell and probably coughing, and being a member of the public walking about outside.
2) That said, even if you're talking about all medical workers, I think you still may be wrong. All dentists that I know locally (2) are wearing gowns, and say their colleagues are, at least those who haven't closed down temporarily. And many other doctors and nurses who aren't working specifically with Covid-19 patients, but who still come into contact with them, are wearing isolation gowns. They're taking the same kind of universal precautions they do for HIV prevention, and assuming that any given patient may be carrying the disease. Given what we are learning about asymptomatic transmission, that's probably a wise approach.
3) Importantly, you appear to have missed the fact that I was making an analogy, not encouraging the general public to wear gowns (I'm not!). You write "There's a big difference between being a medical worker in a room with 12 people who have confirmed covid-19 infection who are unwell and probably coughing, and being a member of the public walking about outside." But that was not and has never been my argument. My argument was, a similar mechanism of action is in the effect of medical professionals wearing gowns, and of the general public washing clothes after being out in public among probably Covid-19 carriers.
Clearly, doctors believe there's some kind of benefit to protecting your clothing from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, or they wouldn't bother wearing gowns in Covid-19 wards (and elsewhere, as mentioned above!).
All that said, the most important thing to do is to social distance, and stay home unless you must go out. But lots of people have to go out, and for them, a mask is a very good idea, and CDC-recommended.
Are you in a hotspot?
These factors are pretty significant.
All in all, probably not unreasonable, or even quite reasonable, depending on those factors.
If you end up giving it to your kid, and you're both asymptomatic long enough that they give it to your parents and they (possibly) die as a result, would it have felt it's worth it then, to not at least try to prevent it as much as possible?
Personally I would do what I could not to have your kid have to travel back and forth from your parents at all, but I understand that might not be an option.
That is, just do it. It'll mean nothing in a year that you did. And it's not worth fighting over now.
I do whatever gives my wife peace of mind during this stressful time.
These steps are probably a good idea though to protect your family and minimize a chance of infection during/near the peak.
We are also trying to order everything for delivery to minimize trips out. But I still follow all your steps even when picking up a grocery delivery outside.
1. A mask is a good idea. I think covid spreads more through the air than surface to surface. https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Dozens-of-choir-members-sic...
2. Gloves I wear them, then wipe them down with a clorox wipe when I get back to the car. Some say gloves can collect the virus and spread it more, but if you wash your gloved hands or wipe them down I don't think it's going to increase the spread.
3. I strip down in the garage too, have a bin for outside clothes or they go straight in the washer.
4. outside shoes 'crocs' stay in the garage and are washed down outside later when I'm outside.
5. I wash hands twice, then take a shower.
6. fresh clothes
We're also wiping down/sanitizing items that are delivered or picked up, non-perishible items we will even put in bins and let them sit for 5-7 days, then wipe them down before they are brought in.
I would say caution and being overly cautious is ok right now.
They are still figuring out how this spreads. I'm leaning toward it's more airborne spread than they know or are letting on.
Granted most people will have minor symptoms but if you're a family of 4 the odds go up that someone might have a more serious bout of it.
And since it sounds like you have grandparents in the house I would do all these steps for them.
So this isn't unreasonable.
It's a pandemic out there, lots of unknown variables and people are dying and being hospitalized for weeks. You don't want to play it loose and end up in the hospital during the peak.
We all will most likely be exposed at some point, but stay safe and give them time to develop treatments, learn more about it, and eventually a vaccine.
So happily take some extra steps to prevent the spread, keep your family safe and your wife happy.
I have family members that literally act like they travelled to Chernobyl after having returned from the grocery store. There are limits to all of this. You can wash your hands, that’s about it. Maybe change clothes. Take part in the collective social distancing. But we’re not going to act like idiots, and there’s no need spread irrational hysteria between each other.
Your garage is not some bio hazard laboratory. That virus will spread to you in the most benign way possible in a few weeks when we all return to work.
The vast majority of transmissions are person -> person. Very little of the transmission is person -> object -> person.