Do you have anecdotes about people who did everything right, but...

[LAS14]

...got the virus anyway? Along with good guesses by them as to how it happened?

I ask, because as far as I can tell, I'm doing everything right. I want to know if I've overlooked something. Here's what I'm doing.

No one in our house since early March.

We haven't been in any other building except two super markets since early March.

When we take walks it is in sparsely occupied spaces where it's easy to stay 6 ft away from others.

I wear a mask whenever outside the house.

I sanitize my hands immediately upon getting in the car after being in public.

I sanitize my wallet and credit card immediately upon getting in the car after buying something.

I have indoor and outdoor shoes.

I wash my hands with soap, a la Sanjay Gupta's advice about thumbs and wrists and finger tips, to three repetitions of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, as soon as I come into the house.

I never touch my face when I'm outside the house.

Groceries:

I sanitize or wash anything that has to be removed from bags right away. Then I wash my hands as described above.

I leave the rest of the groceries on the kitchen floor for two days.

I shop at stores that have seniors only hours and mark distances at the checkout. The smaller grocery limits the people inside.

Mail:

I open envelopes and boxes and drop the contents out without touching them until I'm done and wash my hands.

Have I forgotten anything? Do you know anyone who did pretty much the same thing but who got sick anyway? Any idea why?

tia
las

[hlthe2b]

1. You are doing what you can. As long as others in the house are equally responsible,

your risk is minimal.

Those who have gotten infected despite their belief they did "everything right" may truly not know what happened and may never know. It would be hard to imagine that subconsciously, they may not have realized that gas nozzle they picked up right after another might have been contaminated and thus the nose and mouth they touched might have been an issue. Or perhaps that teenager who declared they only rode their bike or drove alone to clear their head might actually have met up with friends. Or any one of an infinite number of scenarios.

All you can do is the best you can do and BE IN THE PRESENT. When you are tired, stressed, preoccupied, you can make mistakes. That is a message that hopefully ERs and ICUs are telling their medical staff at the start of every shift. But, it applies to everyone.

[LAS14]

3. I feel fortunate that it's just me and hubby. I often think...

... about over 65s living in families with teenagers and young adults or children. Who knows what they're up to when out and about. I know my son and daughter are faithfully keeping their children at home. That's good.

[jberryhill]

2. The probability of anything is never zero

Do people get lung cancer and never smoke? Yeah, sure. Very few, but...

There are some 330 million people in this country. That means, on any given day, something that only happens “once in a million” pretty much happens 330 times every damned day.

So, in other words, if everyone reduced their risk down to a one in a million chance, then it is still going to happen to 330 people.

You might be one of them.

It’s mind boggling that we can get people to mob the stores for a one in 292,000,000 chance of winning Powerball (yeah I looked it up), but we can’t get people to understand what it means to stay away from other people unless absolutely necessary.

You can never reduce your risk of anything to zero. That’s just the way things are.

It’s like asking, “If I never have sexual intercourse, then can I get pregnant?”

Yes. It’s unlikely, but it certainly happens.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-get-pregnant-without-sexual-intercourse-1960194

[Shermann]

4. There was one on the local news here

I don't see any reason to dwell on it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Are you saying you have gotten the virus?

[LAS14]

6. No. I'm quite healthy. Just wondering if there's anything I'm overlooking. nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. You are not overlooking anything and are probably engaging

in a vast amount of overkill.

As serious as this is, there's little or no evidence that people are getting sick from virus on paper bags or atm keyboards or any other random stuff like that.

If it makes you feel safer, then go ahead.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Nope

I know one person who has the virus, and about a month ago, she defiantly put on her Facebook page "Coronavirus be damned, we're going to see a Broadway show!" She lives in central New Jersey, and went to NYC just before the shows closed.

I like Suzy, she's a good beer drinking buddy (my favorite in my lady's family) but she can be dumb as a brick at times.