Why not gloves?

[GC]

Okay, I get it that most masks won't help with airborne infection coming in, though if you're coughing and sneezing they can definitely help you not to infect others.

But since most infections seem to be hand-to-face transmitted, why aren't people wearing latex, nitrile, or vinyl gloves in public places? There's always the fear of a run on vital medical supplies, but for those of us who already have them, why not? Am I missing something obvious?

For people who have the infection with no symptoms, the fear is that virus-shedding contaminates door handles, toilet handles and seats, basically everything that a contaminated person might touch. To me, it seems that EVERYBODY should be wearing disposable gloves. Why the hell not?

[Three Valves]

In 2009 we didn’t have an economy worth ruining!!

[Three Valves]

Every store employee and food worker I encountered were wearing them today.

Food workers and cash toll takers always wore them where I comes from!!

[GC]

If you touch cooties with gloves, and continue to touch your face (with those cootified gloves) what would that have accomplished?

If you don't touch your face but wait until you drop your cootified gloves into the trash as soon as you leave said public place, you've accomplished something. Disposable gloves have to be properly disposed of to work.

Every store employee and food worker I encountered were wearing them today.

I went to a trash dropoff and then to a grocery store today. I'm the only person I saw with them. No masks anywhere.

In 2009 we didn’t have an economy worth ruining!!

It died in 2008 . . .

[GC]

I’ve long thought the hyper inflated stock prices of the last couple of years were headed for another crash.

[bort]

I've ended up having to wear cotton gloves around the house, to moisturize my hands.

During a normal winter, I get dry cracked hands... But add in all of this hand washing, and it's brutal. My hands literally start bleeding now. Sounds like some kind of hand Ebola. Oh no, that's the next pandemic! Quick, stop washing your hands! :/

[timothy42b]

Exactly.

Gloves transmit germs to your face just as effectively as bare hands.

And if they're not disposable, they're even dirtier. (I run a handbell ensemble. Traditionally we all wear cotton gloves "to protect the bells." Well, no, if you don't wash them every time they are dirtier than your hands and do just as much damage. I ring bare handed and wipe the bells down, except at an event where I have to ring for hours and need to cushion my hands a bit.)

[Rick Denney]

The point of masks, by the way, is to avoid transmitting disease, not to avoid getting it. Think about it. If EVERYONE wore masks, disease would not be transmitted nearly as effectively. There would be less viral load to find the leaks around the masks for people inhaling. But for masks to work, EVERYONE must wear them. This should be required NOW. Singapore has required masks in public, and the growth rate of infection has been more linear there rather than exponential everywhere else. Hong Kong, too. Masks work.

Except that we don't have enough masks, or a way to distribute them effectively. We could actually reduce the strictness of physical isolation if everyone wore masks, and since that can't happen, we have to be more strict. Which I have not observed, so I think our trajectory will be like Italy's.

No, I don't have any masks, either.

Gloves are far less effective at reducing transmission than hand-washing, and those who bought gloves tend to wear them too long, when they should be changed after touching basically anything. Food service workers wear gloves to prevent whatever they've gotten on their hands from getting on your food. Wiping one's face while wearing latex gloves is unpleasant, and people avoid it, which may help. But virus can live on gloves as easily as on skin.

A little more about viral load: A person who receives a small viral load from exposure may get sick. But that small viral load will grow exponentially, and exponential growth always seems slow at first. During that initial slow growth, the body is producing antibodies and fighting it off. That cuts the peak off the exponential curve while the virus runs its course. So, a small dose of virus will probably mean lighter symptoms, compared with someone who inhales a sick person's coughing fits loaded down with virus. Touching a dry surface with a dry hand will not eliminate transmission, but it will surely reduce the dose.

Rick "stay home" Denney

[MaryAnn]

Well, I have a bunch of nitrile (purple!) gloves that fit me. I'm wearing them to keep myself from touching my face; because they "feel funny" I happen to note where I'm putting my hands, and I am amazed at the number of little itches I get on my face on a regular basis. I had to take a washcloth in the car to scratch those itches with because they were driving me nuts. None in a mucus membrane, but I was still breaking the "don't touch your face" rule. I've been fighting some kind of bug for nearly a week, but my temp isn't up and there have been a couple of bugs going around here for a month or so, and I'm usually the last to come down with them. Hopefully this is that. I'm in a high risk group (over 70 and immunocompromised due to toxic mold exposure) and wouldn't look forward to being on a ventilator. The worst of it would be who would take care of my cats?

[tofu]

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