Gearing Up During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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I have heard conflicting claims regarding the length of time this particular virus can live on different surfaces which is both frustrating and potentially dangerous if someone misinterprets safety in handling a particular item.

I am a senior with underlying medical conditions so I need to be especially cautious.

The few times I have had to go out for medical appointments in the past two weeks my routine is to take nitrile gloves with me. I put them on as soon as I get out of my vehicle and then dispose of them as soon as I am about to re-enter my vehicle.

I treat everything as if the virus can live on it for a long time - at least the five day time frame that gets mentioned frequently. I consider anything that I come in contact with as having the virus living on it. I have been told more than once I am overreacting but personally, I would much sooner overreact than perhaps not survive a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

I readily admit I am not a trusting fan of information at WebMD so I was in a critical mindset before reading the article. That said, to clarify the WebMD article regarding paper, the specific claim is:

“The length of time varies. Some strains of coronavirus live for only a few minutes on paper, while others live for up to 5 days.”

Another aspect of the WebMD article that concerns me is the wide range of time ascribed to different smooth surfaces. For example, it suggests the virus could last for 5 days on a metal doorknob but 2-3 days on a refrigerator or only 2-8 hours on a soda can. Without some linked-to science to back up those disparate numbers I assume it can live on all smooth surfaces for 5 days minimum.

I live alone and had to shop for groceries myself recently. I did a pretty big grocery shop, spending about $300 in an effort to not have to leave my house for a couple more weeks unless I absolutely have to for a medical reason. I chose to deal with my groceries by following this Public Service Announcement

It took me a little extra time following the PSA to ensure everything I brought into my house was disinfected and safe but it removed any subsequent anxiety I might have experienced.

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I encountered an interesting effect of Amazon’s shipping prioritization. I decided to order a cold brew coffee brewer, since I won’t be going out to get my usual coffee for the foreseeable future. I ordered it on 3/27 and they said I could get it 4/23, just under four weeks.

But the coffee grounds for it I could have had delivered 3/29.

Not caring about getting it that fast, I opted for a later delivery that would get me $3 of digital credit.

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The most frustrating thing about being on the front lines of this pandemic is the lack of solid information. Since the WebMD article didn’t reference any scientific papers, it’s impossible to know what the source material said.

They were careful to say that it wasn’t relevant to SARS-CoV-2 specifically, but “other coronaviruses.” That’s a wide-open field: there are many coronaviruses with varying characteristics. I have also seen papers that have been interpreted as saying the virus can “live” on surfaces when, in fact, researchers were only able to find and amplify specific RNA fragments using PCR, which is an extraordinarily sensitive test. There are bare-DNA viruses, but this ain’t one. It’s not infectious without its protein coat, lipid jacket, and an assortment of proteins embedded in the lipid layer. Even mild disinfectants (the EPA even lists one that is simply salt water) or soaps can denature the surface proteins and/or disrupt the lipid layer, “killing” the virus.

So was someone able to culture live virus on human cells from a sample taken from a surface after five days? Possibly, but I’m scanning a huge number of scientific papers on the topic every day, and I haven’t seen that referenced – and it would be newsworthy.

So the answer remains “we don’t know.” That’s actually the answer to most important questions we ask about SARS-CoV-2 at this point. But one answer we do have is that soap and water will render the virus non-infectious, and is particularly efficacious on hard, smooth surfaces.

In case people wonder how this is handled in the medical world, or at least my medical world, I’m wearing scrubs and a white coat at work for the first time in a couple of decades. I enter the house through the laundry room, where I remove my clothes and don a robe (so I don’t scare the children). I put the clothes directly into the washer on a sanitizing cycle with bleach, I leave my shoes and equipment in the laundry room, and walk straight to the shower. Once showered, I re-enter the laundry room with alcohol swabs and clean off my wallet, phone, and key fob. I have shoes designated for work/community and they stay in the laundry room.

I probably wash my hands 20-30 times a day when I’m staying home with my teens, even more if I’m out seeing patients (increasingly rare as we convert to telemedicine). I wander around the house with a spray bottle of disinfectant (usually isopropanol) and spray keyboards, chair backs and armrests, light switches, table tops, doorknobs, and the like several times throughout the day. (Unless you have a lot of knowledge, don’t spray switches and keyboards but wipe them down with a cloth or paper towel sprayed with disinfectant.) I’m probably overdoing it, as I’m not one of the real heroes working in an ER or ambulance, but it really isn’t that hard and is probably quite effective. When packages arrive, they go to the laundry room where I spray them with 70% isopropyl alcohol, open them, disinfect the contents, carry the packaging to the outdoor bins, then come back in and wash my hands (again!) before bringing the treasures into the house.

I’m going on too long, but I’d like to mention one other thing: masks. I have a pet theory that one of the more important aspects of wearing a mask is that it provides immediate feedback when you start to touch your face. I have enough surgical training that I do a pretty good (not perfect!) job of keeping my hands off my itchy nose and eyes, but for a lot of people a mask can really help as a reminder – and that might be as important as catching some respiratory droplets. I know there are reasons to save masks for frontline workers, but if you really cannot control your face-touching it might be a thing that could help.

In summary, since we don’t know how long the virus actually can survive on inert surfaces, just disinfect everything whenever you can and perhaps worry a little less about when you can skip it.

Hope this is a bit helpful.

–(“if you have to ask, it’s dirty”)Ron

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24

Here is the latest article from the Wash.Post.
Seems about right to me.
Don’t panic about shopping, getting delivery or accepting packages

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What is your opinion regarding the home made masks that seem to be proliferating? Not necessarily as something that can protect directly against the virus but as you say, somewhat of a preventative measure to better control face touching.

My concern with masks is they arguably give a false sense of security against the virus but they sure might be excellent as reminders to keep our hands and fingers away from our faces.

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I started to address that, but felt as though I’d already gone on far too long. The story of what masks will and won’t do is nuanced and I probably couldn’t do the telling of it justice, but I will say that I think homemade fabric masks serve a valuable purpose. You’re quite correct that if they (or even N95 masks or full respirators) make people feel invulnerable, then they’ll do more harm than good. Most folks, though, seem to understand that they’re just part of the solution and that wearing a mask doesn’t obviate the need to maintain social distance, disinfect surfaces, and wash your hands. Honestly, the role of masks for the general public is probably limited (though “we don’t really know yet” applies here as well), but they probably help a bit, and I would rather people in the community wear fabric or home-made masks and leave the N95’s and respirators to EMTs and ER personnel while there is a shortage.

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Agreed, pretty much along the lines of what we recommended in the article:

You can leave that cardboard package at your door for a few hours — or bring it inside and leave it right inside your door, then wash your hands again. If you’re still concerned there was any virus on the package, you could wipe down the exterior with a disinfectant, or open it outdoors and put the packaging in the recycling can. (Then wash your hands again.)

But there’s also no harm in additional caution, especially for people like @papagordie who are more at risk. One behavior does not need to fit all cases.

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The following is our protocol I wrote that constitutes “no contact” for the purposes of knowing our “no contact” duration (where violating any of these conditions, sets the “no contact” duration to zero) – in theory, this should enable us to know that, after 2-3 no-contact weeks, we’re not a risk to ourselves or others (and could visit with anyone else of the same status):
[Writing this, I felt like I was back gathering requirements for what would become a specification from which software would be developed!]

  • we will confine ourselves to the house and yard

  • no visitors will enter the house or get within 6 feet of us in the yard

  • interacting with a “came to our door” visitor will be through the closed glass front door

  • for parcel/mail/newspaper/grocery/whatever deliveries:

  • if supplying an item to be picked up, while any people remain at least 2 meters away, it will be placed outside for retrieval (after we’ve retreated behind the glass door)

  • when dealing with deliveries and delivered items up to the point that they have been completely unpackaged and wiped (more info below), disposable “rubber”/nitrile gloves will be worn, the gloves will be disposed of in a garbage-bagged quarantine container and hands will be washed immediately after removing the disposable gloves and before touching any surfaces with hands or wrists

  • goods will be transported to the quarantine and wipe-down areas in a manner that prevents contaminating any non-gloved surface along the way (e.g., packages will be touched and will touch only by gloved-hand surfaces and there will be no unopened doors in the transport path)

  • for deliveries that require a signature, one of the following will apply:

    • the delivery person will sign on our behalf then leave the item(s) on the front step

    • the signature-device will be placed on the front step and the delivery person will move back at least 2 meters, after which the signature will be provided, the signee will retreat behind the glass front door, the delivery person will retrieve the signature device and leave the parcel on the step and, when the delivery person has retreated, the delivered item will be retrieved

  • deliveries containing non-perishable goods will be placed in a quarantine area and marked with their end-of-quarantine date (using a marker that remains in the quarantine area)

  • the quarantine durations are 2 or 4 days: 2 days for soft-surfaced goods (e.g., cardboard boxes) and 4 days for hard/glossy surfaced goods (e.g., plastic/fiber envelopes/bags, letters with glossy-window insets, cans/bottles/etc.)

  • the end of quarantine date is the day after the day the quarantine duration has passed

  • perishable delivered goods that require refrigeration will be moved into the quarantine area and, from that location, completely unpackaged and placed in a wipe-down area where (i.e., all non-packaging/non-trash items to be retained will be placed in the wipe-down area)

  • a newly quarantined item will be placed in the quarantine area such that it never touches/contaminates a previously quarantined item – if the delivery frequency is high, this may require additional or larger quarantine area(s)

  • when delivered goods are unpackaged, they will be unpackaged completely … i.e., all packaging will be removed to reveal/extract all individual items (down to the final-level packaging in the case of perishable/food items)

  • completely unpackaged items that have a hard/glossy surface that have been quarantined for only 2 days (i.e., were delivered in a soft-surfaced package and not initially unpackaged), will be placed in the quarantine area for an additional 2 days and marked with their end-of-quarantine date

  • when delivered goods are unpackaged, the unpacking process will be performed in a manner that does not cause the packages to shed dust or packaging particles into the air (if in doubt, the packaging will be sprayed with an appropriate liquid disinfectant – e.g., 70% isopropyl alcohol and water mixture, i.e., we use 99% isopropyl mixed down to 70%)

  • completely unpackaged goods that have completed their quarantine will be placed in a wipe-down area

  • completely unpackaged perishable goods, after being wiped down, will be placed in a quarantine container (e.g., disposable bags, fridge drawers, isolated shelf, etc.), marked with their end-of-quarantine date and refrigerated for the remainder of their quarantine period

  • items that have completed their quarantine duration and were placed in the wipe-down area will be put into service after being wiped using a cloth moistened with an appropriate disinfectant/cleaner (in our case, it’s a 70% isopropyl alcohol and water mixture)

  • a freed-up quarantine area will be spayed or wiped down with disinfectant after being freed up and prior to being re-used

  • the wipe-down area will, itself, be sprayed or wiped down with disinfectant after completing the wipe-down of a collection of items

  • smaller packaging materials will be disposed of in the garbage-bagged quarantine container and larger packaging materials will be placed in an appropriate quarantine area (ideally, outside) for later disposal/recycling, after they have completed their quarantine duration

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29

Here’s a pathologist arguing we should indeed all start wearing masks. He points out we’ll touch our mouth/nose less and he claims we’ll lower the number of droplets we spew towards others. He also shows a recent paper claiming diluting the virus concentration increases your odds to not contract it even when exposed. But he does encourage using bandanas instead of masks now urgently needed by professional healthcare workers.

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