COVID-19 random questions

[RetiredAt55.5]

I work in a school cafeteria, and we're mandated to wear disposable gloves whenever doing any food prep or serving food. I've thought about this often though - it's better than nothing, but if you touch anything contaminated, it's now on the gloves. So it could then be transferred to anything touched with the gloves.

That's why we're supposed to go in the freezer and fridge and get all needed ingredients, and then put the gloves on.

In a busy, hectic restaurant, I dunno. Even if a waitor in a sitdown is wearing gloves, they're touching everything. Same goes for retail cashiers touching the items and cash, or grocery/food delivery.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I'm not a micro-biologist, but I have learned a thing or two from my beer home-brewing experience.

True, you can't easily sanitize a cardboard box of something, but I believe that a lot of the germs ride along on dust particles. So if you wipe the box down with a wet/damp cloth that has sanitizer on it, you are probably going a long way towards removing any contaminants from the box, and killing them on the cloth, while not actually sterilizing the box per se.

Better than nothing, at least. It's all about playing the odds, you can't really sterilize things in practice, but you can make big improvements.

-ERD50

Good point, ERD50. Thanks.

 

[NW-Bound]

In the mid 70s I worked in a bakery...

Thanks for the scary story, I think.

I saw terrifying videos of dirty restaurant kitchens from the Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, but always thought I did not eat at those places. Perhaps I was just fooling myself.

With this virus which is so virulent, even if a commercial kitchen is kept clean and hygiene standards are kept, all it takes is a slip from an infected kitchen staff.

I will not be dining out for a while. No take-out either.

 

[Mdlerth]

Simultaneously both gross and healthy

I could be wrong, but I believe that the 'stomach acid' idea has been debunked.

Not an expert myself, so I rely on what experts say. From Medical News Today:

According to Prof. John Edmunds from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the U.K.:

“It isn’t a very pleasant thought, but every time you swallow, you swallow mucus from your upper respiratory tract. In fact, this is an important defensive mechanism. This sweeps viruses and bacteria down into our gut where they are denatured in the acid conditions of our stomachs.”

“With modern, very highly sensitive detection mechanisms, we can detect these viruses in feces. Usually, viruses we can detect in this way are not infectious to others, as they have been destroyed by our guts.”

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronavirus-myths-explored

 

[Nemo2]

Not an expert myself, so I rely on what experts say. From Medical News Today:



https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronavirus-myths-explored

This was what I was thinking of:

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/debunking-myths-avoid-cure-coronavirus/story?id=69578209

Myth No. 2: Drink water often to flush virus into your stomach where acid will kill it

You cannot "flush out" the virus from your airway by drinking water. The idea that drinking water will push the virus into your stomach where it will be killed is not based on any scientific fact. But do stay hydrated.

 

[Fermion]

Hmm, I always thought the saying was to drink water to flush the dead virus from your kidneys, just to keep your body immune system chugging along.

I never researched it but my guess was that even dead virus that is still in your body has a chance of taking up the resources of your immune system which is still needed to combat live virus.

Either that or the dead virus would keep your body producing reactions that are negative to your health, like mucous in your lungs.

 

[Kwirk]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181824/



MERS virus killed in 1 minute at 65c (149f). Pizza and many other cooked foods are probably safe if not touched after cooling. And, you can reheat to be sure.

 

[GreenEggs]

I work in a school cafeteria, and we're mandated to wear disposable gloves whenever doing any food prep or serving food. I've thought about this often though - it's better than nothing, but if you touch anything contaminated, it's now on the gloves. So it could then be transferred to anything touched with the gloves.

That's why we're supposed to go in the freezer and fridge and get all needed ingredients, and then put the gloves on.

In a busy, hectic restaurant, I dunno. Even if a waitor in a sitdown is wearing gloves, they're touching everything. Same goes for retail cashiers touching the items and cash, or grocery/food delivery.

I've always realized that, but they obviously aren't wearing their gloves while performing personal hygiene or making love, which is a huge relief to know.

 

[Mdlerth]

The Great Sloshing Acid Pit of Death

This was what I was thinking of:

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/debunking-myths-avoid-cure-coronavirus/story?id=69578209

Myth No. 2: Drink water often to flush virus into your stomach where acid will kill it

I didn't interpret that as saying the virus is acid-resistant. Sounds more like merely drinking a lot of water is not going to force all the germs into the dissolving chamber.

Of course, maybe it might if the water is in frozen cube form and accompanied by some liquor. I'll run the test and let you know!

 

[Nemo2]

I'll run the test and let you know!

You may have to undertake numerous tests. After all, you'll want total confirmation of the results.

 

[Sunset]

Nothing is 100% foolproof, but at many fast food/fast casual restaurants, the workers are required to wear gloves and never touch the food with their hands. DD works at Panera Bread and it is that way there.

It's a far cry from the late 70's to mid 80's when gloves didn't exist in fast food and all food was touched with bare hands. Seriously, I cooked the burger meat at McDonald's for several years. We had to touch the frozen raw meat with our bare hands to lay it on the grill. With those same hands we had to touch the lettuce, onions, cheese, buns, etc. and remove the cooked meat from the grill to finish off the sandwiches. There was no handwashing between touching the raw burger meat and anything else. We weren't allowed to leave the grill area with food down. There wouldn't have been time to wash even if we had been able to during the busiest times. It was the same at Arby's and Wendy's. I did a short stint at those places. That was the reality of food service for many years.

BTW, yes, the impact of people being afraid to go out to eat now is immediate. DD was supposed to work a 7+ hour shift today. They sent her home after just 2 1/2 hours because hardly anyone was coming in. Several other employees got sent home early throughout the day.

I wonder if the workers now wear gloves, and touch the raw meat, then make the burger

 

[Dalmore]

You may have to undertake numerous tests. After all, you'll want total confirmation of the results.

I'll volunteer to help increase the sample size.

 

[harllee]

Th local seafood restaurant has Lobster Mondays that we enjoy (full cooked lobster). They are advertising for tomorrow you can get cooked lobster take out. Just call, give them your credit card info on the phone, pull up to the door, text them you are there, and they bring the bagged lobsters to your car. We are doing it for sure. Yum.

On the other hand I have been using Walmart grocery pick up and their website is not allowing any more pick ups for now--bummer.

 

[Silver]

My random question for this forum is; if anyone here does develop symptoms, will you please keep us posted about how it goes? Even if it is someone else in your household with the symptoms....it would be nice to hear first hand from someone with actual experience with this virus.

Right now it seems like getting tested is not always easy, so doing a self differential diagnosis with symptoms of fever, cough, and potentially shortness of breath may be enough to be concerned about. Fever seems to be the big one since that is not common with the standard flu or a cold. The SOB apparently doesn't affect everyone, but there are certainly respiratory symptoms.

If you did get tested what was that process like, and what were the results? If the testing was positive, what were you told to do?

How do you think you got it? Were there early signs, or did symptoms come on rather abruptly? How high did your temperature go? Were there any specific OTC meds that seemed to help the most?

As with all health care concerns, everyone's experience will be different. But perhaps if
(when?) we get members with viral cases we can learn more about it from your experience. Perhaps even start a separate thread just for those effected. Let's hope that never happens.

 

[gwraigty]

I'm not ready to abandon the local restaurants and take-outs yet. And they are taking precautions. The place I was in yesterday had nothing on the tables; no salt shakers, ketchup bottles, tent displays with drink and dessert menus. The servers wash their hands often and extra care is being taken in the kitchen. They're seating parties at alternate tables, never next to another party.

These folks all might be out of a job soon, and we might be eating rationed food. I'm willing to support them and eat well for as long as I can.

I think most restaurants are taking extra precautions, not only with cleaning and sanitizing, but putting things away that customers normally have access to. DD told me that at Panera Bread they've removed coffee cups, lids, condiments, etc. that customers can normally help themselves to. The cashier has to give all that stuff to the customer now.

ETA: A main reason that our Governor hasn't closed the restaurants completely is that there are severe shortages of food in many grocery stores at the moment. They can't handle the additional stress if a lot of restaurant customers are suddenly forced to turn to the grocery stores for food. However, if the grocery stores can start keeping up with the demand and the shelves become full most of the time, that could also change. I've read that in some states they started out just banning dining in, then it progressed to closing the restaurants completely. I appreciate your willingness to keep supporting them. As for us, we got take out pizza today. We were going to get Chinese take out, only to find that they closed starting today through April 5th, claiming it was because of the Governor's order today. Strange and a bit of a cop out, considering they are mostly a take out place.

 

[ncbill]

Of course. Had never heard some of your items before, but very believable.

Anyone who has ever w*rked in any food prep capacity will have many stories like these. I certainly remember some of my own, from a summer job in a Howard Johnson's kitchen in my youth. I still have to smile and shake my head when I remember what used to go on.

But we're a pretty resilient species, all in all.

And be sure to read Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" before heading out for a restaurant meal...

 

[Delaney]

My random question for this forum is; if anyone here does develop symptoms, will you please keep us posted about how it goes? Even if it is someone else in your household with the symptoms....it would be nice to hear first hand from someone with actual experience with this virus.

I agree this would be helpful. If I feel sick, I'll check my temperature and my oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter. I am curious if the oximeter will let me know about breathing issues before I actually feel short of breath. Even if I get sick, I'd rather just recover at home if possible, but I know that if I am having problems with oxygen, that is not an option.

If anyone here develops symptoms and has an oximeter, I'd like to know when/if the oximeter showed an oxygen issue.

 

[CaptTom]

Update on the restaurant thing: Massachusetts just announced they're shutting down all eat-in restaurants. There's some talk of changing unemployment requirements to help, not sure what that means yet.

A very large number of people are facing severe hardships right now; out of work, out of school, no day care, difficulties with elder care, limited hospital access, the list goes on and on.

I urge everyone on this forum to think about what YOU can do to help those who are struggling. First, your own family, neighbors and friends. But I suspect other opportunities to help out in your own community will become evident soon. Already I heard of blood shortages. Someone I know at United Way reports they've been flooded with calls from the agencies they support. Don't be afraid to ask what's needed.