How to catch Covid and not where it came from !

[Stevan]

Regardless of the tiers, or the official relaxations over Christmas, having a Christmas or new year get together with family or friends is a bad idea! Unless, of course, you are happy to increase the risk of spread in order to have your get together.

The disease has NO respect for tiers, rules, relationships, mental health or fun!

If you really want to slow the spread avoid close contact as much as you can at ALL times with anyone outside your immediate household, (avoiding them as well would help even more but that is just not practical).

Alternatively you can just accept that the vast bulk of us will catch it eventually, it's just a matter of time.

[Ern]

5 minutes ago, Stevan said:

Regardless of the tiers, or the official relaxations over Christmas, having a Christmas or new year get together with family or friends is a bad idea! Unless, of course, you are happy to increase the risk of spread in order to have your get together.

The disease has NO respect for tiers, rules, relationships, mental health or fun!

If you really want to slow the spread avoid close contact as much as you can at ALL times with anyone outside your immediate household, (avoiding them as well would help even more but that is just not practical).

Alternatively you can just accept that the vast bulk of us will catch it eventually, it's just a matter of time.

 

We do not accept that we will catch it eventually, or that any family member should have to remember that it was them who infected their own relatives. 

[Stevan]

1 minute ago, Ern said:

 

We do not accept that we will catch it eventually, or that any family member should have to remember that it was them who infected their own relatives. 

IMHO, in that case you need to protect yourselves far more than the current rules mandate.

[Ern]

3 hours ago, Stevan said:

IMHO, in that case you need to protect yourselves far more than the current rules mandate.

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Ern

[Ern]

My post has not appeared?

[NobbyTucker]

On 26/11/2020 at 20:36, CJ1149 said:

How do the posties cope?  Is our mail sanitised before sorting/delivery?

Sawbridgeworth sorting office is currently closed, as they have apparently had an outbreak and posties are isolating. Advice is to put post aside for a few days or disinfectant when deliveries restart.

[Ern]

10 hours ago, Stevan said:

IMHO, in that case you need to protect yourselves far more than the current rules mandate.

Yes we do try to protect ourselves and go beyond the minimal rules. We have sanitised every item delivered to our home including post and food as far as we can. We were locked in early March and didnt venture out until September. We are doing everything we can to avoid infection. At our age and in my case because of health condtion, we would probably not do too well if we became ill with this virus. We are determined not to be a casualty of this or to pass on an infection to others. We do not accept the inevitability point you made in your last post.

[Wildwood]

On 26/11/2020 at 20:36, CJ1149 said:

..................or ask any ambulance crew.

 

How do the posties cope?  Is our mail sanitised before sorting/delivery?

The staff handling along the way all use masks, given fresh each day, have to sanitise as they enter the sorting office and social distancing is enforced. The possible problem is the postman who could spread it though. I would assume if the sender infected it then hopefully that would have died before you get it.

[664DaveS]

We open our mail put envelopes in recycle box then wash our hands,simple.

Same with any deliveries.

[CJ1149]

We do the same with our mail and anything else that's delivered.  We even use hot soapy water on shopping.

These should help protect us and reduce further spread, hopefully.    And that's all we can do, I think.

 

My question about posties and whether mail was sanitised before sorting/delivery was within the context of proactive action to protect employees and in turn, customers.  Apparently this isn't working according to other posts.

Another example of not knowing for certain the source of contamination. 

[MalH]

Where possible, I check whether the person delivering is wearing gloves. If they aren’t then I open and dispose of the covering immediately then wash hands.

[Grandpa Steve]

30 minutes ago, MalH said:

Where possible, I check whether the person delivering is wearing gloves. If they aren’t then I open and dispose of the covering immediately then wash hands.

The problem is unless you see them get the gloves out of a new packet, you have no idea what has been touch prior to your post. 
 

It could be a gate catch, a letterbox, a fence, the postie could have rubbed their nose or other parts of their person.

[Paul1957]

Wearing gloves can give a false sense of safety to the wearer and to others. I saw a supermarket checkout operator wearing gloves but then opened a tin of lip balm, dipped a gloved finger in it and then applied the balm to their lips. As a result, whatever was on the gloves was applied to the lips and to anything that was on the lips would go on to things the gloves touch.

[Stevan]

19 hours ago, MalH said:

Where possible, I check whether the person delivering is wearing gloves. If they aren’t then I open and dispose of the covering immediately then wash hands.

Why should even new gloves be any safer than freshly sanitised hands?

[ericfield]

4 hours ago, Stevan said:

Why should even new gloves be any safer than freshly sanitised hands?

Medical gloves are gamma irradiated in their packaging to ensure their sterility at the time of opening.

 

The worrying thing is that a lot of PPE has surged onto the marketplace and I’ve yet to see a box with the telltale confirmation marks to say they were irradiated. So your question has validity.

 

Unfortunately, I’m willing to bet that many people don’t sanitise their hands well enough.
Alcohol sanitiser need 30secs exposure to effectively kill all nasties. Trouble is, the alcohol evaporates in 10-15 secs!

And how many people thoroughly wash their hands for more than the minimum 20secs?

 

Ive seen lots of token gestures this year. 
 

That said anyone taking these steps is doing two useful things....they are reducing the exposure concentration but more importantly showing the awareness and presence of mind to acknowledge the risk and take some precautionary steps.

 

 

I agree wearing gloves can be a false sense of security.
I saw a care worker pull done her mask, turn away from her charge and sneeze into her gloved hands. Then simply replace the mask and carry on with her duties and the soiled gloves. 

The bottom line is we shouldn’t knock any attempts to protect ourselves and others....but we shouldn’t ascribe 100% surety to any one measure.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by ericfield

[Gordon]

The more of us that are consciencious about protecting ourselves, the more that others will be protected too. Every single one of us has to take responsibility for minimising the spread of  Covid-19 !

[Townie]

35 minutes ago, Gordon said:

Every single one of us has to take responsibility for minimising the spread of  Covid-19 !

Unless of course you are a government advisor, government medical advisor, MP, pop star, footballer etc, then you either say sorry or don't even acknowledge you've done anything wrong!!