Coronavirus Question..

[Hooby]

With this deadly coronavirus in China we are forever seeing clips on TV of people walking around with masks on, but why aren't they wearing gloves? Surely contact can be a way to spread/ pick up the virus and so l thought it would be obvious that wearing gloves would minimise contamination? Anyone know why they don't?

[emmie]

people are being advised to wash their hands thoroughly. the virus can be spread via the mouth by people coughing and sneezing mostly.

[rowanwitch]

Gloves make you complacent, you should still wash your hands. Most of the masks won't stop virus particles anyway, better to just avoid crowds and hope your immune system is strong enough.

[ichkeria]

The virus probably isn’t “deadly” to be fair.

[emmie]

the families of those who have died so far may beg to differ.

[Theland]

The quarantined are coming to my local hospital.
I was there yesterday :-((

[ichkeria]

I meant that it so far doesn’t appear to have high virulence.

[emmie]

many thousands are affected in China and they can't cope with the on rush.

[Hooby]

Good answer emmie, though I'd still thought wearing gloves would be advisable along with washing hands ( I work in a job where both are done to reduce the chance of spread of infections, bacteria, virus, etc ). Rowanwitch, I don't see why they make you complacent, I'd still wash my hands and wear gloves if we were under a threat. ( They've just announced there's 2 confirmed cases in the UK ). Ichkeria: how many have died so far....? ( sadly).

[emmie]

hundreds have died so far, mostly those who had underlying conditions already apparently...
horrible whichever way you look at it.

[Hooby]

ichkeria, doesn't every outbreak start as a few? It soon multiplies over time, you can see that happening now. :-(

[rowanwitch]

If you dont know how to remove gloves properly you contaminate your hands with what ever is on the gloves, they make your hands sweat which makes them more likely to host bugs, and you think you are ok until you put your hand with dirty gloves to your face because it itches of you want to cough. You would need to change gloves after every human contact, every time you touch something like a rail on a bus, in an ITU setting we wore gloves for patient contact at the end of each shift the bins were full of them.

[ichkeria]

So far the “Coronavirus” (the common cold is a Coronavirus) has killed a very small percentage of those who have contracted it - compared to SARS for example. Most if not all people with existing health issues. And that’s assuming that there aren’t a lot more milder cases that we don’t know of, which seems highly probable.
It’s still a “new thing” and definitely needs to be controlled and contained, but as I said elsewhere fundamentally viruses, while they don’t infect us for our benefit, nonetheless do have a survival instinct of their own and a dead host means a dead virus.

Re the OP, have you tried using a phone wearing gloves? :-)

[Hooby]

Rowanwitch : good answer, which is what l was looking for. Ichkeria : using the phone with gloves on... Haha! Point taken. :-D

[237SJ]

In my place of work I have come across many people who are wearing masks. All sorts of masks. I saw someone the other day who had some sort of valve attached to it. Maybe that was the 'elite version' Anyway, in the airport I saw a classic case of misuse of a mask. The wearer removed the mask from their face, rubbed their nose and then replaced the mask. Kind of invalidates the whole point of wearing it.

[jno]

ichkeria, I have no trouble turning the dial on my phone with gloves on. Though I am fairly confident it doesn't have coronavirus.

btw, I have had an email from Canada, apparently serious, saying sales of Mexican beer have been affected.)

[Prudie]

Everything I have read suggests the mask wearing offers virtually no protection at all yet so many are using them.

[237SJ]

^ I tend to agree

[Canary42]

How do Creationists deal with this - according to them God created it, so where's it been hiding all these years (4,000 or so isn't it?)

[woofgang]

It seems to be an oriental thing....don't Japanese people wear them during cold and flu season?

[237SJ]

^ Not really