I got a bling package on Thursday.
I opened it up with my bare hands---imagine that!!!
And you know what? I wasn't afraid.
I am getting a delivery tomorrow. I will be opening with great excitement and then washing my hands.
My usual plan of lying in wait for the postal worker and pouncing on them will have to wait due to social distancing! Will I be able to contain myself?
Some disinfectants require a surface to be wet for several minutes to be truly effective. Some are not effective against human Coronavirus at all. A quick wipe down is probably sufficient given the risk of transmission is sooooo low (i.e. the wiping is unnecessary to begin with) but for truly contaminated surfaces it may not be effective at all. Most Lysol products are in that category...the wipes are particularly ineffective as surface contact/wet time is 10 minutes. Everyone out clearing out shelves of wipes is mostly wasting time and money but probably feel better about it so it’s not a complete waste. I hope they are also following hand washing guidelines because that is what matters. If you are truly concerned about contact transmission the EPA has a list of disinfectants and the contact time required to be effective.
About List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus (COVID-19) | US EPA
EPA expects all products on List N to kill the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) when used according to the label directions.www.epa.gov
The results from the latest tests that I've read said the virus can live on cardboard for 24 hours, on plastic and steel for 72 hours, and there was some other surface that was 48 hours, but I can't remember what it was.
However, during that period, the microns break down and it's unlikely the virus is viable for transmission in the latter stages of those time periods. In other words - COVID-19 on cardboard doesn't go from tansmissive to non-transmissive at precisely 24 hours - it's less than that.
And in other, super-encouraging news - COVID-19 has to be ingested in certain ways - and through your alimentary canal isn't one of them. In other words, if your virus-carrying take-out server sneezes into your food, and you eat the food, you won't catch the virus. You may well do from him or her touching the packaging, then you touching the packaging, then touching your eyes, for example - but not from eating the food. Fascinating, really.
So all that to say, when we're opening packages, we can probably put the Lysol away for a rainier day.
Even if a restaurant worker coughs or sneezes directly in your food, you won't catch coronavirus from eating the meal
"Even if a worker sneezes directly into a bowl of salad before packing it in a take-out container, as gross as it is, it's unlikely to get you sick."www.businessinsider.com
I found the link you posted interesting, but it only led me to more questions. If the active ingredient in some of the products the EPA found to work against COVID-19 to be something (e.g. hydrogen peroxide) wouldn't that by itself be likely to kill COVID-19?