So my favorite grocery store announced last night a worker tested positive for CV

[Laura PourMeADrink]

They won't say who. I don't mean name of course, just that I'd feel safer if it was a truck unloader vs the butcher.

Anyway getting delivery today and thought I'd look up " should you wash your groceries".

Get a video of Sanjay Gupta. Said you can use any kind of spray cleaner you want. Doesn't have to have virus killing ingredients or be hot and sudsy water This makes zero sense to me. Why wouldn't be the same as your hands?

[Lochloosa]

1. You don't have to use sanitizer when you wash your hands.

Just old fashion soap and water. It washes away the virus

[Kaleva]

2. You wash your hands with soap and water and that's more effective then hand sanitizer.

Another informative video:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213177919

[Merlot]

3. Soap and water is also easier on your skin

I use the soap and water for everything including groceries. I added liquid concentrated soap to a spray bottle and use old rags which I throw in the laundry. Quick, easy and economical.

Lysol is dangerous for cats and hand sanitizer is hard to find and ruins your skin.

[Kaleva]

12. I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the vehicle.

But when I'm home, I just wash my hands with soap and water.

[Merlot]

16. I keep a bottle of spray soap in the car with some rags

Spray my hands and wipe with rags which then go to laundry.

I was late to the hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, they were all sold out by time I started looking. Soap, lots of it, every where is my solution.

[BusyBeingBest]

4. I think the "any spray cleaner" deal is because it doesn't take much

to break apart or deactivate the virus's lipid coating. That said, I wash cans/jars/plastic bottles with warm water and dish soap and a paper towel to scrub with. I try to carefully open and re-package some things into bags and plastic containers I have at home, to save my precious disinfecting wipes, like fresh produce, hamburger buns and cuts of meat. Things I can't re-package and don't want to submerge in soap/water, I use wipes. I find that lots of plastic bag/wrap packaging has little jabs and pinholes from mishandling that will allow in water/cleaners and potentially contaminate the food--frozen veggies and bread bags are the worst for this.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. Thanks. Good info. But what I still don't get it why if

The virus is degraded on packaging of food - like plastic or cardboard, why isn't it degraded on our hands?

[BusyBeingBest]

8. If you left the virus alone on your hands for a couple days, it would probably

degrade without any washing because the virus didn't land on favorable turf for it to start replicating. (Unless you have cuts/cracked skin on your hands, which we all probably do now from excessive washing, but then I don't know if we can get infected that way.)
The danger is that once it gets on your hands, you are going to potentially put virus particles up your nose, in your mouth, in your eyes at some point during the day--or you are going to touch faucet handles and doorknobs and toothbrushes and keyboards and there the particles sit, waiting for you or someone else to pick up those particles and put them in their eyes/nose/mouth.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. Good explanation! Thanks. Did read that the more

Porous the surface the shorter it can live. Probably because it "soaks" in? Kind of counterintuitive at first.

[jberryhill]

11. It does degrade on your hands

Just don't use your hands for anything for a couple of hours, and they'll be fine to start using again.

Take off your hands, set them aside for two hours, and then just put them back on and use them normally.

If, however, you are sort of like most normal people, then you are probably going to be using your hands for other things for most of the day.

If you have a dryer shelf, you can put your hands in there and heat them for a while, or throw them in the oven.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. Roflmao. When did you become a comedian?

[littlemissmartypants]

22. jberryhill is a DU treasure. I seek out his posts because I know that his perspective

is just the angle I need to sharpen my perspective and adjust my attitude.

Long live and hip, hip, hurray for jberryhill!!

❤ lmsp

[Laura PourMeADrink]

24. Yes...cool guy from way back when.we all were

completely united when bush "won". Just didn't know he was funny

[jberryhill]

25. Whaddya mean "funny"

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Dawn Dish Soap is

the best disinfectant going. BTW,one of the best Shampoo's .

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. So there's two things that I may be confusing. 1) the application

on any surface of something that kills the virus (like bleach, alcohol) and 2) the washing away of the virus droplets by using something like you say, Dawn, to break the oily coating of the virus droplets.

[BusyBeingBest]

10. I do think Gupta is acknowledging that non-disinfectant spray cleaners

are better than nothing, because lysol and Clorox products are really hard to come by right now, and things like 409 or Fantastik or Mr. Clean can probably do the job almost as well. I'm guessing he'd rather we try with what we have on hand and at least remove SOME of the virus particles than give up altogether.

[shanti]

19. Shampoo??

A detergent meant to cut grease will strip your hair of everything. It's not meant for hair. Can't even imagine what hair would feel like after a shampoo with Dawn, but it wouldn't be pretty.

[Wellstone ruled]

23. A famous

Company washes all their Hair pieces with Dawn. Sold their Saloons Dawn in Six gallon buckets .

[Chiyo-chichi]

26. This post is going to keep me up all night.

I won't be able to sleep till I figure out what famous company washes its hair pieces with Dawn and has saloons.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

28. Hahahaha

[Raine]

27. I've used it now and then when my hair

is extra dirty or I'm low on shampoo. I have waist length hair and it hasn't hurt it but I wouldn't use it regularly only very rarely.

[womanofthehills]

31. Just rub some coconut oil into your Dawn washed hair

And you will be good to go.

[cwydro]

9. All you need is regular soap and water on your hands.

This obsession with hand sanitizer is puzzling.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. Isn't hand sanitizer in lieu of soap and hot water when its

not available? But it doesn't kill it instantly I don't think. Like my son, in Jan wanted to make facemasks out of copper cloth because copper is anti-viral. But read it takes like 2 hrs to kill it.

[BGBD]

13. A couple of things

The virus is, well, a virus. None of the soaps out there are anti-viral soaps anyway. Anti-bacterial soaps that people want so bad aren't going to be any more effective against CV than any other soap.

With that said, all soaps are very effective against it. This CV is covered in a lipid layer. essentially it is surrounded by fat, and anything that breaks down that fat layer is going to wreck havoc on the virus. Any soap will do this, but like somebody else above mentioned, soaps that have degreasing properties will be especially good.

You should be washing, or otherwise disinfecting your groceries. Wash your fruits and veges in warm soapy water like you should always do anyway. Even without CV there are a myriad of germs and bacteria that will end up on these things just as they sit in the grocery store and people handle them. Cans and jars can also be washed if you want to save on wipes. The packaging that you can't really get wet you can disinfect with wipes or use some diluted bleach and water on a rag. Also, anything like cereal you could just remove the outer box and throw it away or pour it into a jar and throw all of the packaging out.

Be sure that when you bring your groceries in you keep them in a contained area and move the cleaned ones to a "clean" area. When you are done and dispose of the trash, be sure to disinfect the containment area as well.

Do this same process if you order carryout or get food delivered. Assume the virus is present on the packaging, although in reality it probably isn't given only one or two other people, likely who have been washing their hands, have handled it.

Treat these things like you would raw chicken. You don't want to cross contaminate, so keep in mind your clear and containment areas/items.

All of that might seem obsessive, but it's all meant to lower your risk of exposure as much as possible.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. Thanks!!! Good practical advice.

[Blue_true]

21. Actually, if she washes her hands after touching stuff that she won't be eating

for several days, if there was virus on it, that virus would likely be dead when she came to use the product. The exception is ready to eat stuff like cookies and cakes, probably a good idea to give those some cleaning, like with peroxide OR a bleach solution (NEVER mix peroxide and bleach).

[Laura PourMeADrink]

29. yummy

[Blue_true]

34. I meant clean the packages. Bleach flavored cookies probably are NASTY!!!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

36. ❤️

[Blue_true]

20. You just don't pull the majority of your food out of the package

and eat it. You do stuff to that food, like wash it before either eating it or cooking it. If you follow proper hand washing regimen every time you have touched something that someone else had touched, it is likely that the covid19 virus will be dead by the time you start the actual consumption process on food. The exception is ready to eat without any other preparation foods, those packages, maybe you should wipe down with bleach solution of 70%+ alcohol, or 3%+ peroxide solutions before opening the package (after washing your hands).

[womanofthehills]

30. Any food that does not need refrigeration, I just leave outside on my porch

I wash the rest with soapy water - even the outsides of ice cream containers. I transfer meats and bread, etc to clean plastic bags.

Another good thing about Dawn - if you run out of laundry detergent - it works fine. I Always bought expensive detergent for washing wool sweaters till I read online many people use Dawn for delicate washables My granddaughter cleared up her acne by washing her face with Dawn. The wonders of Dawn.

[ooky]

32. I fill up my kitchen sink with a dishwashing liquid solution and wash all containers and

packages in it. I keep my mask on while doing it. Then it all goes to a staging area in my garage where it stays until I need to use it. Stuff that needs to be refrigerated or frozen goes into the garage refrig/freezer.

[Hortensis]

33. No notice from any in our town that I've seen, so congrats

on your store or government's policy. I of course don't believe there have been none.

I've been doing few, large shoppings and leaving everything that doesn't require refrigeration in the plastic grocery bags (not using my own reusables right now) on the covered porch outside our kitchen for 3 days to give most virus particles time to become inactive. I spray their tops to make myself feel better, and anything I take out before finally bringing them in. Produce and refrigerator packages are rinsed off and spritzed.

Btw, info on survival of coronaviruses in freezers varies radically, anywhere from 2 days to 2 years. They haven't tacked it down for this particular strain. So until we know, best to assume our freezers help keep it "alive."

[lindysalsagal]

35. I have no doubt the virus is everywhere, especially daily workers

We just don't know it, which is why the resident of the white house doesn't want testing.