Coronavirus Infected Mail And Parcels.

[pollys13]

I have thought about the post through the letterbox being infected so have been careful handling anything. I expect everyone else here has been careful too. Just in case, anyone wasn't aware of the possible danger to handling their mail, they might like to give this a read.
https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/19/post-car ... -12422678/

Keep your distance and stay safe

 

[Rorschach]

Sensible advice. I have been opening everything at once, trying to avoid touching the mail/item inside and then washing my hands before doing anything else. Most of my stuff has been coming from China and in transit for 2 weeks or more so it's only the outside packing I need to worry about.

 

[sunnybob]

Cyprus closed all post offices and stopped deliveries over a week ago. C'mon Britain, keep up. 8)

 

[SammyQ]

The lady is a cancer specialist, NOT a virologist or epidemiologist. She is expressing an opinion to a journalist? There is no data provided with her reported comments to substantiate this. Yes, I am aware of continuing research and suspicions: plastic surfaces three days, steel and metal surfaces 1-2 days, paper and cardboard indeterminate, but hours(???).

I leave my mail untouched in our outer hall for a minimum of 6-8 hours, then glove up, open, read and decide action. Old envelopes etc are taken straight out our front door (already opened) and into a bin. Gloves and hands sanitised immediately, without touching any surfaces en route.

I live with a severely immuno-compromised person.

Sam

 

[marcros]

have you received any specialist advice, Sammy? Are the NHS/others telling you what additional precautions you should be taking is is it down to the individuals to try and do some research themselves?

you are obviously well versed in research and critical analysis, but I fear for many vulnerable people who are doing their best, but all they know is to not go shopping and stay inside.

 

[ColeyS1]

I had to go to the supermarket earlier for essentials.There was a guy stood a few people in front of me (2 metres or more apart) He was a bit figity and stood in the queue picking his nose and coughing into his hand. He then proceeded to pick up 4 bags of snacks, reading each one before eventually putting them back on the shelves without buying any of them.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Tris]

Interesting programme on radio 4 yesterday afternoon on this and related topics claimed Covid-19 has a half life of 6 to 8 hours on hard surfaces but that it was difficult to test cardboard and paper due to the absorbency. I think gloves may be a sensible precaution.
On a similar note I have started taking packets from the back of the shelves in supermarkets as there is likely to be less risk of nose pickers fondling them :evil:

 

[Irish Rover]

I had to go to the supermarket earlier for essentials.There was a guy stood a few people in front of me (2 metres or more apart) He was a bit figity and stood in the queue picking his nose and coughing into his hand. He then proceeded to pick up 4 bags of snacks, reading each one before eventually putting them back on the shelves without buying any of them.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Did you say something to him?
If not, why not?

 

[SammyQ]

have you received any specialist advice, Sammy? Are the NHS/others telling you what additional precautions you should be taking is is it down to the individuals to try and do some research themselves?

It's a mixture Mark. Meggie has yet to recieve "her letter" from oncology, and her G.P. is mute, but we have had generic "underlying condition" Govmt texts, including: "pack an overnight bag" though they don't say why. Terrifying.

As regards research, I try to go for hard data and there is a University of Southampton academic trying to sift data on surface transmission as we speak. His problem is the lack of control in removing variables, before obtaining data, not surprisingly. What I posted above is a distillation of his initial work, aided partially by information from London Tropical Medicines whatcamacallit , where one female collator thought she had found faecal transmission, where peeps were sanguine about bathroom hygiene(!!).

We have two official letters cooking in full sunlight (bugs dont survive U.V. as a general rule) and once they've had their two hours each side, we'll open them and let you know if we have anything new.

Hope you are safe down there in Leeds.

Sam

 

[Trainee neophyte]

A couple of weeks ago (or more?) some viral internet thing was pointing out that bubble wrap packaging surrounding your Chinese plastic item had Chinese air in it...ewwww! Don't pop bubble wrap! You may die!

What you don't know about your parcel is whether or not your postie spat on it just before putting it through the letter box. Assuming it is radioactive won't hurt you, and theoretically might keep you from contracting the virus. I think it is probably only "theoretically", but I freely admit I don't have the data.

 

[SammyQ]

Well, the letters were identical, sent from differing arms of NHS. They told us nothing new, and nothing specific about surface transmission.

There is a lot of opinion washing around out there, masquerading as fact and also proper authority synopses glossing over detail. I got a red face over on WH2 quoting just such a generalised article from NHS, only to be mercifully derailed by RogerS before I dug a mine for myself. Ergo, the devil is in the detail.
Problem is, a) detail is still emerging and b) the capability to get out and set up statistically viable comparisons is zero. So, we are left with hospital records and minimal 'adjacent' information. There ARE figures about transmission routes from (particularly) Singapore, South Korea and - if you trust them - China, but it is still thin on the ground. Sorry!

Sam

 

[D_W]

Interesting programme on radio 4 yesterday afternoon on this and related topics claimed Covid-19 has a half life of 6 to 8 hours on hard surfaces but that it was difficult to test cardboard and paper due to the absorbency. I think gloves may be a sensible precaution.
On a similar note I have started taking packets from the back of the shelves in supermarkets as there is likely to be less risk of nose pickers fondling them :evil:

safe viral load on cardboard here is advised to be a day. On non-oxidizing surfaces like stainless and plastic, much much longer.

The thing about cardboard that's not realized here is that many of the packages with advertising coloration on the outside are glossy surface, and quite a bit of packaging that's taped is just plastic surface. There's no reason to believe that they'll be different than bare cardboard surface, but they can be sterilized since they're not absorbent.

We have been allowing the packages to sit for two days and washing hands after opening regardless of how many days. The density of the sickness in my area isn't what it sounds like it is in the UK, but most of us are hoping that the weaker strains prevail before we end up getting it.

 

[SammyQ]

Great point David, thank you.

Sam

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Interesting programme on radio 4 yesterday afternoon on this and related topics claimed Covid-19 has a half life of 6 to 8 hours on hard surfaces but that it was difficult to test cardboard and paper due to the absorbency. I think gloves may be a sensible precaution.
On a similar note I have started taking packets from the back of the shelves in supermarkets as there is likely to be less risk of nose pickers fondling them :evil:

If the shelf stackers are doing their jobs, the stuff at the back will be fresher, anyway.

 

[Fitzroy]

Received two parcels over last couple of days, both wiped down with 10% bleach solution prior to opening then hands washed and packaging in the bin. My step father passed away 10 days ago, non Covid related, but expect my mum 74 to come to stay for a few months once the funeral is done, delay until next Friday and 6 persons expected. Trying to ensue we are 14 days isolated with no symptoms before bringing her into a safe house where we can support her in her time of need. Better safe than sorry at the moment in my opinion.

Fitz.

 

[FatmanG]

i think royal mail leeds have found a way to stop infection spreading through letters and parcels, theyve stopped delivering them seriously though huge number of staff off according to the lad who delivered my last parcel. Some items ive been waiting over 2 weeks for. Hardly surprising though.

 

[D_W]

The advice has gone the opposite way here. Wheres initially, they talked about virus on surfaces and only droplets in the air to inhale, they've gone to saying that they believe it is more persistent in the air and even heavy breathing can aerosolize it.

I saw some discussion with a virologist where his opinion was that he thinks the touch-type transmissions are fairly low, and less frequent that we thought early on.

The folks who seem to be worst off by far are those working in places where there's a high viral load in the air.

He also said that the commentary about the virus being found alive on surfaces for 7 to 17 days are alarmist because they will survive that long, but there's a big difference between:
* virus existing somewhere in a great enough load to infect you
* the point were the very last little bit dies

I'd still wash my hands after mail reading, and we have done that here to date, but paper surfaces and cardboard are not ideal like that article says - non-oxidizing plastic and stainless are, so we have just been letting the mail sit for a day. I am much more wary now about staying in an area where air doesn't move and there's a lot of human traffic, though (like standing in lines at the post office, etc). From the very beginning, it's seemed like folks who get a big gush into the lungs fare far worse than those who aren't sure where they got it or who may have started with symptoms in their mouth or nose.

50% of the confirmed staff cases here in the early nursing home outbreak in washington state (where the viral load in the air would've been very high) required hospitalization, even though the average age for staff was only 44.

 

[MikeG.]

My severely immuno-compromised mother is having to take all the precautions and more that have been described in the last page or two. Luckily, with a background in nursing and with experience of running a cottage hospital, she is well versed in bio-security and sterile environments. If she gets it wrong, she would probably die, so the incentive is high. On the other hand, we can act on our own account with impunity. Obviously we will do everything in our power to make sure we don't spread the bug, but as for worrying about our own safety, the advantage we've gained through having survived the damn thing is that we don't have to disinfect anything, nor worry about someone sneezing on us.

 

[Just4Fun]

On the other hand, we can act on our own account with impunity. Obviously we will do everything in our power to make sure we don't spread the bug, but as for worrying about our own safety, the advantage we've gained through having survived the damn thing is that we don't have to disinfect anything, nor worry about someone sneezing on us.

Have you seen anything to definitely confirm that? Much as we would all like it to be true I have only seen vague wording that leaves the possibility open either way. The American CDC says:

There are no data concerning the possibility of re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 after recovery from COVID-19.

That web page was updated on 3 April, so it is reasonably current. Were I you I would continue to exercise all care until your superpower status is confirmed.

 

[MikeG.]

In practice, it makes no difference to us other than that we feel more relaxed than others do. Our behaviour remains the same.