Covid Advice #4 (04/29/2020):
Supermarket, Groceries, Fridge, Freezer, Vegetables, Cloth Masks
Supermarket, Groceries, Fridge, Freezer, Vegetables, Cloth Masks
- from Dr. Dennis Fong -
Since my last emails about Covid sent April 5, 6, and 15, I've been asked many very good questions. I am going to share my answers to some of the most commonly asked ones since you might be wondering abut the same things.
1. THE SUPERMARKET:
Question:
Why is the supermarket so dangerous?
Answer:
Because there's a high chance that the staff there may be asymptomatic but infectious carriers. They are young and robust enough to stand at the cash register all day long or to stock heavy groceries. These are exactly the people who get the virus but stay healthy and strong, not ill, yet they are infectious just like the ill people. True, they wear cloth masks, but that doesn't protect them very much, only other people. So all day long they stand at the counter and are exposed to hundreds of shoppers, and all it takes is one of them to spread to the staff person at the cash. then she can spread it to all the other staff in the store, who in turn can spread it back to the shoppers. And all this can happen for a long long time without anyone knowing, because these staff persons can all stay healthy week after week despite being infected. Like I say, treat everyone else not in your household as being infected.
2. THE GROCERIES:
Question:
Why are groceries so dangerous that we must disinfect or quarantine every one of them?
Answer:
Because the staff at the stores who have handled the groceries may be infected. Then if you get them delivered, they have also been handled by the delivery people. Like I say, treat everything that's been handled by other people as infected.
3. THE FREEZER:
Question:
Can I put groceries in the freezer to kill Covid?
Answer:
No. We haven't done stuides on Covid itself for freezing, but studies on other coronaviruses (one kills chickens and others cause common colds) show that cold makes them live longer. Freezing will make them live up to 2 years.
This all makes sense when you consider that Covid is like a miniature ball of butter; it's a bit of RNA (equivalent of DNA in some viruses) surrounded by a special type of fat called lipids. Now a ball of butter eventually melts in room temperature (Covid lives for 2 days) but when you freeze one it becomes way more solid.
4. THE FRIDGE:
Question:
Instead of washing my vegetables in dish soap when I get them, can I just put them in the fridge and leave them to quarantine for a few days?
Answer:
No. Studies on other coronaviruses than Covid show that they can live up to a month at refrigerator temperatures.
5. VEGETABLES:
Question:
How do you disinfect vegetables if they are not wrapped in plastic? You are not telling us to wash cauliflower, spinach and the like in dish soap and water are you?
Answer:
Yes I am. Wash them in dish soap then soak them in plain water for a while and rinse them off well. The very tiny amounts of residual soap that may be there won't hurt you.
Now if you really do get too squeamish to wash vegetables in dish soap then don't, but you will have to eat them boiled. Put them in the fridge in a special quarantine compartment. Then, when it's time to eat them, take them out and put them in boilding water, which kills the Covid immediately. Disinfect you hands right after. If you cut the vegetables you must be ready to disinfect your knife and chopping board as well as your hands right after before you contaminate any other food. Or, you can just hold a stalk of, say broccoli, over the pot, break off pieces with your other hand and drop them into the boiling pot.
6. CLOTH MASKS:
Question:
I go to the store and I wear cloth masks, why isn't that good enough?
Answer:
Because cloth masks don't protect the wearer very much because they don't stop all saliva droplets from others from getting through to you. Now they do protect other people, way better than no mask at all, because they are effective enough at stopping your saliva droplets from getting out of the mask. But really, to protect yourself you should wear a medical mask, one of those blue "paper-looking" ones.
Note:
Though I had been hoping like everyone else that the pandemic would be winding down by now since the weather has warmed up, with 20,000 to 30,000 new cases and 1,500 new deaths every day still, I don't think we can let up our guard any time soon. Even if the governor cancels the shelter-in-place order like some other governors are doing, we should still put on a robust defense against the virus until both these numbers are way down, down way, way more
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