Thread by @DrSamuelBrown

I’ve been trying to support the restaurant industry better lately. The thing that strikes me is what appears to be widely held misconceptions about how to prevent spread. I think they’re used to Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli. So the scrub down the surfaces a lot.

But that’s not how sars2 is transmitted (you should still keep surfaces clean because it’s not like Salmonella died of COVID; plus there’s some small risk for COVID transmission associated with contamination of shared surfaces). It’s transmitted by being near people w/o mask

and eye covering. During curbside contactless pickup today, staff rushed up to me with their mask under their chin loudly explaining to me how clean the kitchen was. She was clearly trying to do the right thing, clearly scared of COVID and clearly not being safe about COVID.

I had to jump backwards and call out for her to stop to prevent her invading my safe zone. I think this made me realize that independent of all the political fighting about masks, there’s confusion about how the virus is actually spread. So maybe “think social anxiety, not OCD”

as the phenotype for safe COVID practice. Yes, wash your hands. But you can wash your hands a thousand times a day and if you’re not managing masks, eye covers, and distance you’re at risk for getting and giving COVID.