The Most Likely Way You’ll Get Infected with Covid-19 | Hacker News Reader

The Most Likely Way You’ll Get Infected with Covid-19

elemental.medium.com

59 pointsundefined112 comments

Wouldn't it be great if the CDC was able to share this type of information in this type of format that might actually be comprehensible to the general public.

Like this? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si...

Thanks for the link. This CDC guidance is basically the tl;dr of the actionable parts of the medium article. The CDC guidance is:

* Maintain good social distance (about 6 feet). This is very important in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

* Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

* Routinely clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

* Cover your mouth and nose with a mask when around others.

A small difference between the medium article and the CDC guidance is the order of importance, particularly as the weather gets colder in the US. The medium article argues #4 (masks) and #1 (distance) are more important than #2 (hand washing) and #3 (cleaning). The order on the CDC site is probably more of an artifact of how the guidance evolved rather than the relative importance (the wayback machine shows the mask bullet was added June 1st: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.cdc.gov/coronaviru...).

The problem with that sort of advice is it is grossly oversimplified. If I'm hiking on a narrow path and someone walking along in the other direction; do I need to leave the path and put a mask on or can I just smile politely and walk on past? Do I need to wash my hands immediately after walking past them?

The CDC page provides very little guidance on why or when. There are directives and no way to assess the risk. Compare that to this high quality article - it talks about no. people sneezing on a small surface to get high viral loads, or the Korean story where there is a lot of situational data about how people catch the virus. Very situated, talking about actual values and mechanisms.

I don't need to know what to do, that is such generic nonsense I could have guessed it as soon as I knew covid was airborne - block your air intake, stay away from people. Truly not the stuff of enlightenment. I need to know risk so I can decide what situations to avoid and when to impolitely leave the room. I can use this scientist's article to assess whether I am personally at risk of catching COVID in a given instance. That is much more powerful than the CDCs article.

The last line of the CDC page is a link for people who want to learn more about protecting themselves, which at least provides some of the more precise information you want. Having a concise post of the key parts is more useful to many people.

The only useful information in the Medium article lacking from the CDC is the bit about filtering air meaning it's usually safer to be outside. Beyond that, it's more interesting but suggests the same as the CDC page.

It's a great cheatsheet for what you need to know, but it doesn't attempt to convince people why they should be wearing a mask.

It's a bunch of facts printed on a page. It doesn't build a narrative and it doesn't form an argument. Unlike the medium article, it didn't make me think about the situations in my own life where I could be doing a better job of protecting myself and others. The medium article spurs thought because it's so well-written!

People need to not only be told what to do to protect themselves and others, but there should be an element of explaining why, and explaining the logic behind the recommendations.

I wouldn't share the CDC guidelines with family. I would share the medium article. You can assign a percentage likelihood of sharing with family, and it's just a guess, but I bet the medium article has a higher likelihood of being shared with others by your average person.

This is great, but I’m still going to wipe down my groceries.

I'm still going to wipe down my plastic and cardboard groceries when it's not a complete pain, but I'm probably not going to worry about spraying my produce with hydrogen peroxide.

I just rinse produce before using it, like I should anyway. I do wipe down groceries that go in the refrigerator or freezer that aren't produce though, although I'm slowly running out of disinfectant wipes (we did manage to grab some hand wipes the other day, hopefully those are safe to use). I no longer wipe down anything non-perishable, just let it sit in quarantine for a few days before using it.

I'm washing most products (lemons, bottles, plastic containers...) with water& soap. Isn't it good enough?

Yeah, that probably could be enough, especially if you scrub enough. Like with our hands, the soap and the friction makes the virus break apart (somehow, I'm too tired to look it up).

You might even be doing better than I am, since I just do a quick wipe and I am stretching each wipe really thin (trying to only use one or two per grocery delivery).

What are your thoughts about the risks of not training your immune system with sub-infectious doses of the virus?

I usually take the opposite approach. If I have an opportunity to expose myself to sub-infectious doses, I go out of my way because I figure it's an opportunity for my immune system to build a more robust defense against the virus in case at some point I get exposed to an infectious dose.

I figure the tiny amounts of virus that may be present on my groceries provide a wonderful classroom environment for my T and B cells.

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