jaborch99 said:

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My 16-year-old daughter works at Chick-fil-A. We made her give up all her shifts this week. They have now closed the dining room and are only doing drive-thru and pick up orders. I hate to make her quit her job, but I want to do the right thing. What do you recommend?

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I know you're asking the docs' opinions but I happened to go thru the Chikfila drive thru for lunch and paid particular attention to the procedures out of curiosity.

Everything is arms' length, so while it's not 6 ft at all times it's at least 4 feet at all times between the customers' faces and the workers' faces, and it's outdoor air (and humidity and wind) which make social distancing more effective than conditioned air.

The biggest threat of transmission by far would seem to be a worker getting it on their hand from an infected credit card, and then touching their hand to their face at some point. Presumably all workers would be smart enough to wash their hand thoroughly before eating and drinking anything.

But if your daughter doesn't have any health issues, the risk to your daughter even if she did get infected is very small. I'm not overly concerned about my kids getting sick because of they do it likely won't be very bad at all. I am concerned about my parents getting sick. If my parents lived with us I would be much more concerned about my kids getting sick because I wouldn't want them to pass it on to my parents.

tandrus said:

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Thanks for the advice on traveling. We're 99% cancelling, unless something changes substantially (1%) over the next few days... we don't think it will.

Weird times for my family -- we've all been under the weather for ~2 months (daycare crud). Wife has had bronchitis and a sinus infection. She's been on a steroid inhaler, which I've told her to stop based on your previous posts. I've got a post-nasal drip and a sore throat. Should we be extra cautious?

Should we also pull our 11 month old out of day care? They are still operating, but I'm wondering if it's just smarter to pull her out. We have potential help with inlaws, but they may be more exposed due to work than day care.

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I am not sure what to think about day cares as they are normally considered high risk. However, in this particular virus it does not seem to thrive in children. Let's be clear they are not immune it is just not a common age group for this virus to infect. Which is a great thing for all of the infants and children out there. We are currently studying to find out why this is. If you can I would probably pull her for a month or so while this thing slows down some.

Quote:

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I actually put all I had left in the washingmachine and dryer.

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There's a money laundering aggie joke in there somewhere

garyt73 said:

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It is much easier to disinfect a credit card than cash.

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Very true but remember coronavirus can only live up to 24 hrs on cardboard, 72 hrs on plastics and steel in a laboratory. Real life time will be much less. I would suspect paper even less than cardboard. In addition UV light is one of the best disinfectants so lay your bills out in the sun for a little while and it will likely clean them. Wiping a credit card with alcohol and it is cleaned.

PLEASE remember to sterile your cell phones regularly. Clean them with 60+% alcohol if you are worried about it not being water proof than purchase a UV phone sterilizer. It takes about 5 to 10 Minutes but will completely sterilize your phone.

DeWrecking Crew said:

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I'm having a hard time understanding how the asymptomatic are spreading it. My understanding is it spreads like the flu, it aerosols in coughs and sneezes. If you are asymptomatic you aren't coughing and sneezing, so how are they spreading it?

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It's a common misconception that respiratory droplets are only produced while coughing or sneezing. Obviously those actions produce a large volume of them, but respiratory droplets are constantly expelled just through regular breathing, talking, laughing, etc... Additionally, this virus appears to be shed in stool as well, so an infected person that doesn't wash their hands could contaminate many surfaces.

DeWrecking Crew said:

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I'm having a hard time understanding how the asymptomatic are spreading it. My understanding is it spreads like the flu, it aerosols in coughs and sneezes. If you are asymptomatic you aren't coughing and sneezing, so how are they spreading it?

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It spreads with any respiratory droplets. When you breath respiratory droplets are excreted with normal breathing. More are excreted with coughing and sneezing but there is enough to get infected with normal breathing also. As a rule of thumb if you can smell somebody's breath you are inhaling there respiratory droplets.

Dr,

I am a current senior at A&M. When this all went down I was already on my last spring break in Miami. On the day I flew home (Thursday) I woke up with a dry cough. I probably cough every 20 min. I wouldn't worry except for the fact that I was born with the heart condition Tetralogy of Fallot as well as had surgery to repair a blocked portal vein, which had caused benign nodules in my liver, in January of 2019. Since Thursday I have been keeping to myself and on the brink of trying to get tested but held myself back due to the fact that my cough, while it still remains, hasn't gotten any worse and I don't have any other symptoms such as a fever. I figure because my symptoms are so mild, other people could use the tests more than me, despite my medical history. Today my mom was able to get her hands on a device that measures oxygen levels. My oxygen came back at 99%. Would you say this, as well as my lack of fever, and lack of a worsening cough is a pretty good indicator that I don't have the virus?

Thanks

TXaggiesTX said:

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Dr,

I am a current senior at A&M. When this all went down I was already on my last spring break in Miami. On the day I flew home (Thursday) I woke up with a dry cough. I probably cough every 20 min. I wouldn't worry except for the fact that I was born with the heart condition Tetralogy of Fallot as well as had surgery to repair a blocked portal vein, which had caused benign nodules in my liver, in January of 2019. Since Thursday I have been keeping to myself and on the brink of trying to get tested but held myself back due to the fact that my cough, while it still remains, hasn't gotten any worse and I don't have any other symptoms such as a fever. I figure because my symptoms are so mild, other people could use the tests more than me, despite my medical history. Today my mom was able to get her hands on a device that measures oxygen levels. My oxygen came back at 99%. Would you say this, as well as my lack of fever, and lack of a worsening cough is a pretty good indicator that I don't have the virus?

Thanks

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Tough call your heart history is certainly worrisome with this virus. But currently with mild symptoms and no if you have contracted you are fortunate enough to have a mild infection. However, you need to monitor this closely. If your oxygen level drops below 95%, legs swell or you have any shortness of breath you should go to ER immediately.

JB!98 said:

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My wife is on me about using a disinfectant on my steering wheel and truck. Reading that this thing does not like 80-90 degrees +, how concerned should we be with the interior of vehicles? It was 91 here today and the interior of my truck is much hotter than that.

Thank you for this thread.

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Not very as ultraviolet light from the sun is a pretty good disinfectant. So it would not likely live very long inside a car parked in the sun.

JB!98 said:

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My wife is on me about using a disinfectant on my steering wheel and truck. Reading that this thing does not like 80-90 degrees +, how concerned should we be with the interior of vehicles? It was 91 here today and the interior of my truck is much hotter than that.

Thank you for this thread.

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Bring on that Texas heat... for once we need it !

cdouglas said:

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If an employee at a small business is diagnosed or is known to have been exposed to someone that has COVID19 is the business required by law to close down since everyone employed (to include ownership) was exposed?

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Not that I'm aware of. First someone exposed to someone is not guaranteed to even contract the virus himself. We are currently recommending isolation to those people as a precaution only. So if never even contracted it would not be prudent to shut down an entire business for that.

Now if was infected and came to work than people he came into close contact should probably consider isolation.

Reveille said:

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JB!98 said:

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My wife is on me about using a disinfectant on my steering wheel and truck. Reading that this thing does not like 80-90 degrees +, how concerned should we be with the interior of vehicles? It was 91 here today and the interior of my truck is much hotter than that.

Thank you for this thread.

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Not very as ultraviolet light from the sun is a pretty good disinfectant. So it would not likely live very long inside a car parked in the sun.

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Not wanting to argue doc, but are the UV wavelengths that kill the virus able to pass through glass. Many of the harmful UV wavelengths are reflected from glass, thus glass is opaque to those UV wavelengths. It's why one does not get a sunburn on their arm adjacent to a rolled up window but will get a bad sunburn with the window down.

Sir Loin said:

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I am a 26 year old Aggie grad who had a history with severe asthma growing up. I was on singulair, Advair, as well as other medications such as Xopenex consistently consistenlyt throughout my childhood. About 4 years ago towards the end of my junior year and after having surgery to fix some sinus issues, my asthma basically disappeared as I have not had any symptoms really at all since. Around this time I stopped taking all preventative medication. Should I be worried and be considered in the high risk group? I would consider myself extremely healthy (much healthier than I was in college), exercise every day, eat right, and feel better than ever. I am now wondering (even though I have not had symptoms in years) whether or not I should reach out to my doctor about getting back on preventative asthma medication facing the possibility of possibly catching this virus.

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I think getting into to discuss this with your doctor is a good decision. He knows your history and how bad your asthma was. Might want to run spirometry to measure your forced vital capacity (FVC). This would be more predictive of where your asthma is today!

Old RV Ag said:

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Reveille said:

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JB!98 said:

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My wife is on me about using a disinfectant on my steering wheel and truck. Reading that this thing does not like 80-90 degrees +, how concerned should we be with the interior of vehicles? It was 91 here today and the interior of my truck is much hotter than that.

Thank you for this thread.

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Not very as ultraviolet light from the sun is a pretty good disinfectant. So it would not likely live very long inside a car parked in the sun.

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Not wanting to argue doc, but are the UV wavelengths that kill the virus able to pass through glass. Many of the harmful UV wavelengths are reflected from glass, thus glass is opaque to those UV wavelengths. It's why one does not get a sunburn on their arm adjacent to a rolled up window but will get a bad sunburn with the window down.

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Good to know! I didn't know all the windows were coated now.

Yes I would consider heavy drinkers to be high risk. Most have elevated liver functions of not some degree of cirrhosis. In addition heavy drinking leads to diabetes. Which we know is a significant risk factor.

88planoAg said:

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I just saw a 'what not to take' list that included elderberry. First and only mention I've seen. Any idea where that came from?

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