At this writing, most of us are nowhere near anyone carrying COVID-19, the coronavirus currently spreading from its jump to humans in Wuhan, China. However, it’s generally expected (including by the CDC) to become pandemic; so that happy distance is not expected to persist. When COVID-19 gets within transmission distance of us, we want to be prepared to prevent it — that’s what preppers Do, right? So here are some strategies to keep in mind. The story might change as more data becomes available, but this is the best info I can find as of Feb 23, 2020.
Masks, gloves, eye protection, and gowns all help against COVID-19. And never underestimate hand-washing.
Author’s note: I’m a pathophysiologist, so I read and work with medical science a lot. I’m not a physician or a virologist. This is my best attempt to give you good answers from quality literature, but you should take everything you read from every source with a grain of salt. A recent update the overall COVID-19 situation can be found here.
Distance is the best protection
Public health folks call it “social distance”. It means not hanging around other people who might transfer the disease. If you’re not where infected people are, and you’re not handling things they’ve handled, your risk of infection with COVID-19 or any other germ goes way down.
The preparations that provide the most protection here are being ready to hole up. Have the stuff you need so shopping is not necessary. If possible, arrange to work from home so the pressure to make a living doesn’t drive you out, either.
Protection from transmission by objects
There hasn’t been time yet to get definitive studies out on this particular coronavirus. There’s some preliminary information on COVID-19; and it agrees with what we know of related coronaviruses. Here’s the best summary information I could find (1):
Coronaviruses as a group, and thus probably COVID-19 too, can persist on surfaces such as glass, metal, and plastic for up to nine days. Unfriendly conditions would kill it sooner, but that’s a decent rule of thumb. (Ok, I’m just going to use ‘kill’ to mean ‘render unable to cause infection’. Viruses aren’t really alive, but that gets the point across.)
Germicidal agents that provide good protection
Germicidal treatments effectively kill the virus if applied to infected surfaces. Some are better than others. These killed coronaviruses within a minute:
- 62-71% ethanol. That would be about 140 proof. You can buy grain alcohol products that high, but be aware that garden variety vodka runs closer to 90 proof. Solvent grade alcohol is often sold at 190 proof. Don’t drink it (it’s often spiked with methanol to discourage that). Lower proofs are likely to work, but perhaps take longer or have lower efficiency. Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is likely to be effective, but I didn’t see a definitive test in my brief survey.
- Hand gel sanitizers made of alcohol should work. They’re about the right concentration as sold. The gel slows evaporation too, making it more likely that the germs get enough exposure to the alcohol. (This is my projection; not from the literature.)
- 0.5% hydrogen peroxide. Drugstore hydrogen peroxide is about 3%; so 1 part of that to 5 parts water would be about right. If your bottle is old, don’t dilute it as much. It degrades over time. Using it full strength wouldn’t hurt anything except your inventory.
- 0.1% sodium hypochlorite. Household bleach is usually 5.25% as sold. Given that bleach degrades fairly rapidly, I’ll probably dilute my bleach with 9 or 19 parts water, depending on the age of the bleach bottle. That’s above the tested strength, so I’m being conservative there.
Keep in mind that plain ole’ soap and water don’t kill viruses, but they do a good job of washing things off of surfaces. In other words, plain cleanliness helps a lot.
Germicidal treatments that didn’t provide good protection
Benzalkonium chloride and chlorhexidine products did not kill as efficiently. Do they still work some? Sure, but not what I’d recommend based on this data.
Personal protection devices
Sales of masks and gloves are pretty hot right now around the world. How well do they work?
Masks alone don’t provide good protection. (2) This is because it’s not just cough droplets that spread the virus. Eye conjunctiva (i.e. tears) and fecal-oral routes (people not washing after using the restroom then contaminating things) are also possible.
N-95 masks (not terribly comfortable for long-term breathing), goggles, and gowns are recommended to protect those in contact with infected persons.
However, masks and gloves will both help. There are two main reasons: 1) They won’t stop every germ route, but they stop the most frequently used routes. That’s worth a lot. 2) Having gloves on reminds you (well, me at least) not to touch my face, and to be very careful about what other things I do touch.
“They looked fine” is not good protection (2)
People infected with this virus can efficiently spread it before they show symptoms. The window for this is particularly long for COVID-19; about 14 days. There have been people efficiently spreading infection who never showed signs of illness (they stayed subclinical, in other words). And people are efficiently transmitting the virus after they recover from all of their symptoms.
In other words, once this COVID-19 really gets circulating, effective protection is going to be an ongoing job when in contact with the outside world. No slacking just because the people you hang out with feel fine.
References
- Kampf, G. et al. Feb 6, 2020. Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents. Journal of Hospital Infection, in press, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022
- De Change et al. Feb 13, 2020. Protecting health care workers from subclinical COVID-19 infection. The Lancet, Respiratory Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30066-7
Spice. I do agree with your comment using UV for home use. Your comment is similar in nature (e.g., perspective) to what has often been said about indoor air quality, that indoor air is far more contaminated than outdoor air, and that (when possible) opening windows can do a world of good to reduce contaminants in a home. There is a lot of “Building Scienc”e Indoor Air research related to HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) about how much outdoor air can enter homes through cracks, pipe holes to the outside of a house, etc. Most of it relates to issues of temperature, moisture intrusion, molds formation, etc.
When I was trucking (and granted I had a small space to work with) I would UV my truck cab interior for several days in a row, “just in case” because there exists no definitive info that I could find about dosing. Everything I tried to sterilize, especially cloth materials and polyvinals got at least a 30 second, if not a minute “shine” from the UV light. Another thing that UV light does in at least one, if not more of its “A, B, and C” wavelength powers is that it “lights up” dust, droplets of many sorts, and finger prints (such as “greasy or oily-sweaty fingerprints”. It enables “seeing” what is often difficult to see with eyesight dirty places in one’s home, and even still dirty places after one has cleaned or wiped up a spill of some sort.
I still agree with your comment about shadow areas, smooth and polished surfaces, etc. What I have done in my home is to daily UV certain areas: toilet seats and handles, toilet paper hardware devices, laundry basket areas, countertops, refrigerator handles–when someone is sick in the home and to reduce the likelihood of contamination spreading. My son does it also who is immunity depressed. For fun, I also irraditated paper money blls to see all the invisible gunk on them.
As a tangent regarding virus transmission. COVID-19 all started in a market place. Certainly it could have been transmitted from infected products, but another thing that is “most common and exchanged” in marketplaces is cash money. Exchanging money on a short-term basis is no different than touching about anything with your hands, then rubbing your eyes, picking your nose, etc. Hopefully people will use credit-debit-prepaid-gift cards (easy to wipe with alcohol pads) that should enable everybody access to a means of exchange easy to clean, besides wearing globes.
When I was a Boy Scout arriving at a new camp site, our Scout Leader told us all that there are many tasks that must be done for everyone’s benefit. Different ones of us were given assignments for the weekend. Everybody had a job, even the less mobile. IIn the active army, on base and in combat, the same expectations were demanded–everybody had a job and everyone got training for performing thorough tasks (nothing was left to chance or imagination). In many homes not everyone has a job other than “go to school and do your home schoolwork assignments. In a pandemic, every member of every household needs to be given a job, even kids and even if it is called “Safety Officer”, meaning pick up toys, shoes, “trip hazards” that can cause injury resulting in that question, “Should I go to a clinic?” I have not yet seen any sort of “Home or Household” Pandemic list of needs, and safer proceedures for dealing with pandemic safety needs. Maybe it is assumed that this is not needed because older generations will teach younger generations, but I remember at age 18 entering my first apartment and having to do things that Mother used to do, and wondering where to begin and how to get organized; as well as pondering how I could possibly have forgotten to do some essential task when it was needed. Checklists are important everywhere (workplaces, hospitals, home) to ensure complete coverage. They are an aid to anyone uninformed, inexperienced, distracted, forgetful, etc. A Pandemic Checklist of what to do when entering a home from a marketplace (or work, etc.) is important for reducing risk. There are strict procedures for NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) contamination when one enters their “home camp” area in the military. These get practiced over and over again, daily for awhile, then weekly, until it becomes automatic. In a household that means at the entry way certain things need to be done to safeguard the home and limit the spread of possible contamination. Gloves, masks, gowns, shoes-boot covers are removed and put into a closed container, either for cleaning or disposal (burning). In the same location “indoor clothing ware is put on”. This would imply that there is a new dressing room in the home, but where is it? Is it in the garage attached to the home? At the back door (used for entry). Consistency will be important. And setting up that area so that potential contaminated clothing items are removed at that location (and not taken into the rest of the home is important. It can be done. Heck, if need be a tent could be set up, just outside of a door to deal with this. Maybe even indoors with kind of a shower-curtain type of contraption (for apartments, etc.). If it is important and can be done, then it needs to be done. The best time to prepare such procedures is NOW before the pandemic reaches (for example, and in much of USA) our communities.
Spice! Do you know of any sources for home decontamination practices for a household?