Coronavirus (NO POLITICAL OR SOCIAL COMMENTARY PLEASE)

[Member-222782]

I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing journalists broadcasting from their living rooms. There's all kinds of things that could go wrong. Whatever happened to that guy that was caught on camera without pants? lol

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Even by New Jersey standards, this guy redefines what it means to be a meathead.

...the Babe Ruth of meatheads.

[Show spoiler]

Who?

I used to do One Handed Push ups in High School.

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by mar3o

...How can you browse a book store if you can't touch the books?...

Sterilizing merchandise with UV light might work, but they'd have to hit every page of every touched book that was browsed through, correct? If so, that's just too time consuming & not very efficient. Having to conduct constant testing to see the extent of UV disinfecting would simply add to the inefficiency. Another possible solution is for all stores to install desanitizer & glove dispensers & waste containers. When you walk in, you desanitize your hands, slip on a pair of gloves & go about your business. Just before or right after you checkout, you take the gloves off & throw them in the provided waste container, a container that is emptied regularly by staff so that it doesn't overflow with gloves sticking out of it & gloves all over the floor. Gloves must be taken off & disposed of in the store so that the parking lot doesn't get littered up with gloves. This would be an added expense to the store, but at least customers would still be allowed to handle merchandise & browse through books knowing that nothing was previously handled with bare hands that were possibly contaminated with the virus. An obvious concern would be someone coughing into their gloved hands & then touching merchandise, so staff floor monitors might also be needed as well. However, wearing a mask while browsing should be mandatory, which may lessen the need for floor monitors.

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

Sterilizing merchandise with UV light might work, but they'd have to hit every page of every touched book that was browsed through, correct? If so, that's just too time consuming & not very efficient. Having to conduct constant testing to see the extent of UV disinfecting would simply add to the inefficiency. Another possible solution is for all stores to install desanitizer & glove dispensers & waste containers. When you walk in, you desanitize your hands, slip on a pair of gloves & go about your business. Just before or right after you checkout, you take the gloves off & throw them in the provided waste container, a container that is emptied regularly by staff so that it doesn't overflow with gloves sticking out of it & gloves all over the floor. Gloves must be taken off & disposed of in the store so that the parking lot doesn't get littered up with gloves. This would be an added expense to the store, but at least customers would still be allowed to handle merchandise & browse through books knowing that nothing was previously handled with bare hands that were possibly contaminated with the virus. An obvious concern would be someone coughing into their gloved hands & then touching merchandise, so staff floor monitors might also be needed as well.

Disposable latex gloves transfer the virus as well as hands.

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by ctujackbauer

Gloves transfer the virus better than hands.

If everyone sanitizes their hands upon entry & then puts on non-contaminated gloves provided by the store, then how will the virus transfer to anything if it's not even on the gloves to begin with? I guess if you touch something in the store that already has the virus on it, then yes, the possibility exists that contamination can occur whether you have gloves on or not.

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

If everyone sanitizes their hands upon entry & then puts on non-contaminated gloves provided by the store, then how will the virus transfer to anything if it's not even on the gloves to begin with? I guess if you touch something in the store that already has the virus on it, then yes, the possibility exists that contamination can occur whether you have gloves on or not.

Person touches their face. Gloves defeated.
Person breathes heavily, or coughs, or sneezes releasing droplets. And then touches a book, or coughs directly onto a book. Next person who picks up the book touches their face, even with gloves. Gloves defeated again.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

If everyone sanitizes their hands upon entry & then puts on non-contaminated gloves provided by the store,

That's not realistic or practical.

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by ctujackbauer

Person touches their face. Gloves defeated.
Person breathes heavily, or coughs, or sneezes releasing droplets. And then touches a book. Next person who picks up the book touches their face, even with gloves. Gloves defeated again.

We're supposed to be wearing masks. I guess we need UV lights in stores now. You walk into a store that is entirely & constantly being blasted with UV light from the ceiling & other light sources. Workers have UV light blasters & are blasting everything touched by everyone, including every page of every book that's browsed through. Constant testing is done on all merchandise & surfaces to make sure UV disinfecting is effective. Great.

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

We're supposed to be wearing masks. I guess we need UV lights in stores now. You walk into a store that is entirely & constantly being blasted with UV light from the ceiling & other light sources. Workers have UV light blasters & are blasting everything touched by everyone, including every page of every book that's browsed through. Constant testing is done on all merchandise to make sure UV disinfecting is effective. Great.

Stores have a very loose definition of what qualifies as a mask: bandanas, masks with large air holes/pockets on the side of the mask, etc.

The smartest way might be the way proposed, putting touched books in isolation for a few days or weeks.

Not that Barnes and Noble is going to survive this anyway, they've been in trouble for a while. More worried about independent bookstores.

[bruceames]

How are they going to know which books the customers browsed, if they're just pulling them out to thumb through quickly and then put back on the shelf?

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by bruceames

How are they going to know which books the customers browsed, if they're just pulling them out to thumb through quickly and then put back on the shelf?

Oh just quarantine every book in the store at the end of the day & restock the shelf with replacement copies before the store opens the next day. Rinse & repeat.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

Oh just quarantine every book in the store at the end of the day & restock the shelf with replacement copies before the store opens the next day. Rinse & repeat.

It's ridiculous. What if all the retail stores did this? I touch a lot of things I don't buy and they're not going into a 5 day quarantine.

[ctujackbauer]

Bookstores will be the new enemy of the state, just like self-serve soda stations, buffets, and table-side guacamole (California).

Barnes & Noble will be declared to be too similar to the local Golden Corral, but without the sneeze guards.

[BucketheadPikes]

Book burning anyone?

[MifuneFan]

Bookstores could be treated like private collections/libraries/museums where everything is behind glass or whatever, and if you want to look at a specific book, you request it from a worker, and you're brought to a specific room (there would be multiple rooms like this to handle many customers) and are required to put on gloves when handling the book, etc..The room would be monitored remotely by cameras. The room, and the book (to some extent) can then be sterilized after the customer leaves. Probably not practical, but doable.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

Who?

I used to do One Handed Push ups in High School.

Has no one posted that story yet?

[Moe Szyslak]

Five county Philadelphia region. Stay-at-home order still in place until at least June 4.

[Show spoiler]

[Member-222782]

Should we still thoroughly wash our hands after removing gloves? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I guess I should also ask if it's redundant if we use Purell on gloves.

[mar3o]

It makes zero sense and it isn't even feasible to quarantine every book a customer touches in a book store full of mostly books.

Have sanitizing hand wipes (Clorox, not just useless wet wipes) at the door with a big sign asking all customers to use a wipe before entering and handling books. Also require a mask. At that point, that should cut down greatly the risk of contamination I would think. Are people getting sick from handling books? Has there even been a single recorded case of that happening? Again, trace amounts may not be enough to infect a person according to the latest news.

Are grocery stores quarantining every can of beans and box of crackers people touch and put back? I was in CVS to buy vitamin D earlier because I know I don't get enough. I looked at several different bottles. I don't see them quarantining the ones I handled and put back. I will not lose sleep tonight worrying that somebody will touch that vitamin bottle and get sick. It's highly unlikely.

B&N's proposal is absurd.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Bookstores could be treated like private collections/libraries/museums where everything is behind glass or whatever, and if you want to look at a specific book, you request it from a worker, and you're brought to a specific room (there would be multiple rooms like this to handle many customers) and are required to put on gloves when handling the book, etc..The room would be monitored remotely by cameras. The room, and the book (to some extent) can then be sterilized after the customer leaves. Probably not practical, but doable.

But all of this is overkill. It's totally unrealistic and unnecessary.

And again, what makes a book any different than anything in the grocery store or WalMart? Are we going to be forced to buy anything we touch now? Don't bother opening then if it's going to be this ridiculous.