Before leaving, I open the washing-machine lid and cupboards and close the blinds. I drive to Target instead of the grocery store because it's less dense with people. Put on my mask as I get out of my car. Feel very contaminated in the store, hands pushing the shopping cart, touching everything, paying attention to my breathing and everyone near me. I do take off my mask in the car, and often just leave it there because it will be days before I use it again. I'm often sweating and feel like virus is dripping down my face and my hands are smearing it over my steering wheel.
When I get back home, I drop the grocery bags on the linoleum in the entry way, and use hand sanitizer. Take off my clothes and put them in the washer. Put bags with non-perishable items into a cupboard for a couple days. Put fridge/freezer bags on a particular counter. Wash my hands in the kitchen sink. Put cold items in fridge/freezer (I used to disinfect them, but stopped out of laziness). Spray counter with disinfectant, wipe and dry it; wipe down any handles/switches I touched. Wash hands again. (Sometimes I've washed them three times by then.) Start washing machine. Take a shower.
If I just go to the park, I don't wear a mask or anything. If I grab some booze at the liquor store, I wear a mask. In either case, I wash my hands when I get back, but don't necessarily shower or wash my clothes because I don't feel like the odds of contamination are very high and I probably won't put the pants on for several days anyway..
I'm not trying to be mean, but the above seriously sounds like a kind of mental illness. You should see someone.
Following that rule, your comment would shortened to nothing, therefore you should not have posted it.
So agreed, this routine is excessive. Instead of going to all of this hassle, just source N99 masks and wear them when in unavoidable close proximity to other people. Boom, you're practically guaranteed not to get it.
Not without eye protection you're not. You're also practically guaranteed to wear the respirator incorrectly. Wearing them correctly requires training, absence of facial hair and enduring a very significant degree of discomfort.
As for the need for them - anything at or above the N95 respirator level (including eye protection) is only useful in environments with a high probability of contamination. That's mostly healthcare facilities with known C19 patients (particularly in proximity to aerosol-generating procedures), patient rooms, etc.
EDIT: I think I may have misunderstood the intent of your original post. You said "N99", so I assumed you were actually talking about respirators. If you just meant surgical masks, we're mostly in agreement.
Can you provide hard evidence for the 99% number? It agrees with my intuition, but I don't think we have a very complete view of the effectiveness of different measures, and in the absense of such evidence it seems strange to authoritative call someone else's measures "excessive".
To be clear, I don't think what the commenter is doing is very useful, but I can't prove it either.
It's been a common approach to public safety outside of NA for a long time.
It's not perfect and certainly the messaging about it was continually bungled in a way that only a government can bungle.
>This Corona is total Bullshit
The people in hospitals are real people. You can go down to one and see for yourself. I don't think most modern governments are capable and competent enough to fake that.
It's really that simple. It's not about being perfect or 100%. It's only about reducing the rate of transmission of the virus and masks are probably the easiest way to do that.
EDIT: And in terms of mass protests, NYC easily had among the largest protests over the course of a month and saw absolutely no increase in the transmission rate of the virus. Why? Probably because everyone wore masks. So don't blame protests, facts don't back that up.
Why didn't anyone get sick? Cause it's not real or as serious as the media is making it as*. How is that there is all these protestors and not a single one of them ended up in the damn hospital from attracting Covid? It's total bullshit
As for it not being "real", I'm not sure why 100+ different national governments - ranging from far left to far right - and medical professionals around the globe would all conspire to make something up. Hard to imagine. Impossibly hard to imagine.
You got hard data to prove this claim? No? Then don't make the fucking claim and jump to the "great" conclusion that "It's not real!"
Then again, flat-earthers think they also have the scientific method behind them... and that all those thousands of scientists saying "Please, let me show you why the world is spherical." are in some sort of giant conspiracy to... what, protect the lizard overlords?
You think my reputation deserved to be wiped out just for sharing my personal experiences working at the hospital during this covid fad? Ok, dude.
Do you wear the seatbelt while in a car? From my experience I would've been fine in all the car journeys I've ever taken if I hadn't worn the seatbelt, but I keep wearing them and I don't go on the internet and scream "Seatbelts are unnecessary!!!!". From your car ride experiences, you'd probably agree, so why do you keep wearing it? Is it because you trust the (scientifically done) experiments that show how badly hurt or dead you can be if you don't wear it?
There were about 35,000 deaths in the US during the 2018-2019 flu season.
There have been about 135,000 deaths in the US from COVID-19 so far. And the number of deaths per day is going back up.
So how many people do you think need to die in 2020 from COVID-19 before we should be taking it seriously and not considering it "just a fucking flu"? Another 35,000? More?
It's like wearing seatbelts. Would you have survived your last drive without seatbelts? You probably would've, there were probably no extreme manouvers/accidents that could've hurt you. For I don't know what high-90's percentage of passenger miles driven this day, the seatbelts didn't protect them any extra.
But for the rest of those passenger miles, the ones that did end up in a bad wreck, the seatbelt was probably the difference between life and death. If the wreck was bad enough, some people would still die even with seatbelts on.
The difference between mask and no mask is probably none for a high percentage of wearers (they wore them but they never ran into anyone infected/they didn't get a high enough dose), but if no one wore them, well, statistically there will be more sickness and death.
It's strange how everyone has their own theory about the virus and level of risk comfort. Some think a particle of virus is deadly, others think you need to have a huge viral dose from an infected person to get sick. And whatever you think, you can probably cite an evidence online to back up your conclusion. I'm more of the latter, so I feel secure to be outdoors, but don't make me spend time in a stuffy bar with others in close proximity.
In most places except Florida, Texas and California, the probability of running into someone with covid-19 is low. Unless someone coughs in the vicinity around you, the probability of getting it is even lower.
If you’re really concerned, sanitize your hands and phone when you come into the house with hand sanitizer. Leave a bottle outside if you want.
Then take off all your clothes and put it in the dryer. The dryer at 70C is hot enough to kill the virus to undetectable levels in less than 5 mins.
You don’t need to take a shower, just sanitize your hands. If you’re concerned about your hair, wear a baseball cap and put that in the dryer with the rest of your clothes.
I don’t do it. I sanitize my hands and wear a mask, that’s about it. I don’t wear my shoes indoors so I don’t worry about my shoes.
But if I hear anyone around me cough I literally run away even though I wear a mask. If I’m in a store I will drop everything and leave. Luckily in the 6 months of this pandemic I’ve only heard people cough 2-3 times.
This is basically my routine, if I've been out and touching things other people are likely touching then I get in, take my shoes off and go straight to bathroom and wash my hands.
Then live my life as normal.
When I get groceries delivered I wipe the stuff down I can with some wipes before putting them in fridge or cupboard.
I don't think you need to do much more than that. Mainly you want to avoid being in doors close to other people.
It is still a risky activity, almost anywhere in the US, given the infection rates.
I am female, so I just put a cover/wrap over my hair, in addition to wearing a mask, if I ever need to leave the house. (I have a beautiful natural strawberry blonde hair color—-but my hair has not been cut in ages!) It also keeps micro droplets (or aerosolated germs) from getting in my hair and infecting me, including when showering. I also wear long sleeved clothing too, even in the heat. Also, I don’t wear jewelry anymore and this helps me get cleaner. I often wear gloves, but not always. Sometimes it can be less safe.
When I arrive home, I slip off my shoes and I use a plastic bag to open the back door. (The shades are drawn in my house prior to leaving/entering the house) As soon as I get in the house, I strip completely, and throw my clothes in a garbage bag. I leave my phone on the counter, which I thoroughly clean later. I then wash my hands/arms, scrubbing away with a ton of soap. I then put on my robe/slippers and go to the shower, putting my robe and (washable!) slippers in a trash bag. Then I get in the shower and scrub away. I then get dressed in another room and put on my house slippers.
I then, using gloves and by cleaning knobs frequently and repeatedly, almost algorithmically, deal with the garbage bags and do laundry. Then I wash my phone with soap and water several times, using multiple pairs of gloves. I later wash the floors where I dumped off my clothes.