Covid: Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It: Grocery Shopping, Takeout Tips

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2021, 10:08 AM - Edit history (1)

- Health researchers say wearing masks and washing your hands often is more important than wiping down surfaces when it comes to protecting yourself from the coronavirus.
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- 'Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It.' NPR, *Dec. 28, 2020.

At the start of the pandemic, stores quickly sold out of disinfectant sprays and wipes. People were advised to wipe down their packages and the cans they bought at the grocery store. But scientists have learned a lot this year about the coronavirus and how it's transmitted, and it turns out all that scrubbing and disinfecting might not be necessary. If a person infected with the coronavirus sneezes, coughs or talks loudly, droplets containing particles of the virus can travel through the air and eventually land on nearby surfaces. But the risk of getting infected from touching a surface contaminated by the virus is low, says Emanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University.
"In hospitals, surfaces have been tested near COVID-19 patients, and no infectious virus can be identified," Goldman says. What's found is viral RNA, which is like "the corpse of the virus," he says. That's what's left over after the virus dies. "They don't find infectious virus, and that's because the virus is very fragile in the environment — it decays very quickly," Goldman says.

Back in January and February [2020], scientists and public health officials thought surface contamination was a problem. In fact, early studies suggested the virus could live on surfaces for days. It was assumed transmission occurred when an infected person sneezed or coughed on a nearby surface and "you would get the disease by touching those surfaces and then transferring the virus into your eyes, nose or mouth," says Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who studies airborne transmission of infectious disease.

So people were advised to clean common areas with disinfectant, wipe down cans and boxes from the grocery store and even wear gloves. In retrospect, Marr says that was "overkill." Today, she says, "all the evidence points toward breathing in the virus from the air as being the most important route of transmission." Scientists now know that the early surface studies were done in pristine lab conditions using much larger amounts of virus than would be found in a real-life scenario.

Even so, many of us continue to attack door handles, packages and groceries with disinfectant wipes, and workers across the U.S. spend hours disinfecting surfaces in public areas like airports, buildings and subways. There's no scientific data to justify this, says Dr. Kevin Fennelly, a respiratory infection specialist with the National Institutes of Health. "When you see people doing spray disinfection of streets and sidewalks and walls and subways, I just don't know of any data that supports the fact that we're getting infected from viruses that are jumping up from the sidewalk." Marr says focusing on cleaning surfaces is not the best way to slow infection.

"Instead of paying so much attention to cleaning surfaces, we might be better off paying attention to cleaning the air, given the finite amount of time and resources," Marr says...

More,
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/28/948936133/still-disinfecting-surfaces-it-might-not-be-worth-it
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- No, You Don't Need To Disinfect Your Groceries. But Here's How To Shop Safely, NPR, April, 2020,

.. Know the dangers — focus on the people, not the food: Many people worry about the possibility of picking up the coronavirus from things like grocery store conveyor belts or cereal boxes. But every expert NPR spoke with agrees that the biggest risk when it comes to groceries is being inside the store itself with other people who may be infected. "While it is possible to contract the virus [from contaminated surfaces], the majority of transmission is probably going to be from respiratory droplets, which you're exposed to when you're around other people," says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Avoid crowds and shop quickly: Donald Schaffner, a food microbiologist and distinguished professor at Rutgers University, advises that you look for a grocery store that limits the number of shoppers who are allowed to go in at one time. While that might lead to a long line outside, it's also likely to make it easier to practice social distancing inside the store — staying at least 6 feet away from other people. And once you are in there, he says, focus on getting in and out as fast as possible to minimize your risk...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/12/832269202/no-you-dont-need-to-disinfect-your-groceries-but-here-s-to-shop-safely
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- How Safe Is It To Eat Takeout? NPR, *April, 2020,
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/08/822903487/how-safe-is-it-to-eat-take-out

[brush]

1. I stopped wiping down grocery purchases in the garage months ago.

It was reported a while back that chances of getting the virus from surfaces was very low.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

2. I still wipe carts and hand baskets.

I sanitize before I go in a store and after. The other thing I do is sanitize my hands ( and let them dry ) before I handle produce. The idea that produce is porus and touching it could possibly make others sick bothers me. Maybe that is taking it to far. My surface sanitizing has gone down some as we learn new information.

[bamagal62]

3. Interesting. I wipe everything down with alcohol

Wipes. But, my kids, who live in other states, do not wipe down anything. They wear masks and social distance. My daughter, at school in Pittsburgh, gets tested once per week. She’s been negative everytime. But she does not wipe down groceries or food delivery.

[Hekate]

4. KnR to read later

Always learning!

[tanyev]

5. I'm definitely less paranoid than I was about surfaces.

But I still put on rubber gloves to put gas in the car.