Are you wiping down packages?

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RetiredAt55.5

RetiredAt55.5

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This npr.org article says the virus can live on cardboard up to 24 hours - https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/811609026/the-new-coronavirus-can-live-on-surfaces-for-2-3-days-heres-how-to-clean-them

I do a lot of online shopping, mostly at amazon. I wonder how many different hands have touched my package from the warehouse, till it's left on my doorstep. That includes touching the items put inside the box.

Amazon ships a lot of clothing in plastic bags, sometimes a bag within another bag. Could the virus live longer inside a plastic bag?

I've also heard the stories about how hard the warehouse jobs are, so perhaps best virus practices fall by the wayside (oops, I sneezed in my hands, no time to run to the bathroom to wash them). Ditto for the UPS and Amazon drivers.

So, I'm thinking I should quarantine my packages in the garage for a day or two, but some nights it's still getting below freezing so that's an issue.

This virus pandemic is freaking me out!
 
No, not wiping any packages.
 
The changing environments from warehouse to transportation to sort facility to delivery truck to your home is suppose to be too much for the virus to likely be able to survive. Add that to most packages are not getting to you in 24 hours I’m guessing and you should be good to go.
 
Freedom56 said:
We use the hand sanitizer after touching boxes and mail.
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For your hands? Assuming this is at home, why not soap and water for 20 seconds, which is more effective than hand sanitizer?
 
No, I'm just letting them sit inside near the door for 24 hours, although I did coat my hands in sanitizer to open a mylar envelope and dispose of it before washing (I just don't like the smell the sanitizer leaves on my hands, I probably didn't need to wash). I might build a UVC light box, as much because it's something to do while self-isolating as anything.
 
I just wash my hands thoroughly after opening them and throwing the boxes in the recycling bin.
 
Honestly, I feel like if I am going to get the virus from a package, then it is really a bit pointless to worry about it since there are hundreds of ways to get it easier (just walking into the store and passing within feet of someone walking out and coughing).

The only way to make sure you don't get this virus is to actually bunker down using the food and supplies you have and have zero contact with anyone. Pretend like you are on the ISS or something. I am not willing to do that level of isolation. Well, let me rephrase that. I am willing but my wife is not, so there is no point in me doing it.
 
Fermion said:
Well, let me rephrase that. I am willing but my wife is not, so there is no point in me doing it.
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This would probably be a good separate topic, but I wonder how many of us are experiencing "Spousal Prepper Asymmetry Syndrome". I personally am experiencing a high degree of SPAS, with a DW who rolls her eyes at my social distancing, use of rubber gloves when shopping, etc.
 
I don't know.

My last package was from Amazon on March 2nd. We got our first Coronavirus on March 9th, so I wasn't very "tuned in" to the dangers on the 2nd.

On Friday I am getting my video game cartridge from Amazon that I want so much, and have mentioned several times. This time, after opening the package and throwing out the envelope or box, I do plan to wipe the cartridge down.

Then I will wash my hands thoroughly with soap and water. I agree with Sunny about soap and water being the way to go when one has access to water.
 
The young wife and I are on the same wavelength, as we are on most things. Appropriate preparation but nothing crazy.
 
Gumby said:
The young wife and I are on the same wavelength, as we are on most things. Appropriate preparation but nothing crazy.
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+1
But my 2 live at home adult kids on the other hand [emoji15]
 
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My spouse is also in public health/health education, and the kid got their CNA as part of their high school curriculum, so we're pretty in sync here. That's also why we've all been raising the alarm about limiting the spread of the disease and flattening the curve for over two months now...well, I'll admit, it was brought to my attention by a family member who is a computational biologist, before it was known to have spread outside of China.

Anyway, luckily we're all pretty much in agreement in our household.
 
Sunny said:
Convenience I get completely.

I just brought it up as many people think the sanitizers do a better job of being anti-bacterial than soap and water, which isn't the case. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...the-hand-sanitizer-versus-hand-washing-debate or numerous other articles.
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Well before this pandemic, my wife always carries hand sanitizer with her. We got used to using it before and after we eat at restaurants, or before and after we touch shopping carts, or going to the doctor or dentist. We are just used to using it. She buys 2 liter bottles and refills smaller bottles. Using anti-bacterial soap on a continuous basis is not a good idea.

https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/09/antibacterial-soap/498644/
 
My spouse and I are not on the same wavelength regarding risk. He is doing everything still. We rarely order anything online.
 
Fermion said:
The only way to make sure you don't get this virus is to actually bunker down using the food and supplies you have and have zero contact with anyone. Pretend like you are on the ISS or something. I am not willing to do that level of isolation. Well, let me rephrase that. I am willing but my wife is not, so there is no point in me doing it.
Click to expand...

Not sure I follow the logic though, for a few reasons:

  1. Unless you'd go exactly where she'd go, you are still increasing your exposure and enhancing your risk by not practicing more social distancing yourself
  2. If you become infected and shed prior to symptoms, you just became part of the problem by potentially spreading this to somebody else who may not have been infected had you not been and in the place at the time they were.
  3. It isn't inevitable that everyone will get this

While sitting in your living room in a hazmat suit for the next two months is overdoing it just a tad, there is space between that and not adjusting behaviors at all.

I just keep hearing younger folk bemoaning they have to be able to live their life, when all that is really being asked is to just chill for a few months. A relatively very brief time period, not a draconian end of life.
 
What I mean is, what good does it do for me to wipe down a package that maybe has a 0.001% chance of having contamination living on it when my wife is still going to the local play which has many order of magnitude more chance of exposure?


I didn't mean that I would go out with her, I just mean that is it worth the effort to lower our combined household risk from something like 10% to 9.999% by wiping down packages?
 
Fermion said:
just mean that is it worth the effort to lower our combined household risk from something like 10% to 9.999% by wiping down packages?
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For the specific example of wiping a package down, no I don't think it is abosultely needed (as I posted earlier, the virus won't survive all the changing environments it goes through from the shipper to your house anyway, though I suppose if your UPS driver sneezed on it as he/she puts it on your step that may be a different issue).

In general though, it does still help to reduce your own exposure when you can.... even if you are going to be exposed more often than you'd like for whatever reason (family members not changing their ways, have to go to work, etc.)
 
My wife (68 w hypertension) has been trailing me in the paranoia/fear department but she's catching up fast. Fortunately, she has been willing to humor me.


I too use the car trunk and the garage as decontamination zones. I use gloves and I've been mixing 70% isopropyl alcohol and 3% hydrogen peroxide (1 cup to 1 tablespoon) in a spray bottle for packaged goods. I don't know that it helps any but I feel better doing it.
 
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