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Normally we'd fly out of town for Thanksgiving/Christmas to our respective families, but my wife and I are staying put this year. My parents are coming to us fo

Normally we'd fly out of town for Thanksgiving/Christmas to our respective families, but my wife and I are staying put this year. My parents are coming to us for Thanksgiving, but we are making them get tested the weekend prior, quarantine at home for a few more days, then they are driving to us only stopping for gas (so, wipe down the pump with a Clorox wipe and then use hand sanitizer after touching it). That process alleviates enough of the fear for us. Edit: Why the downvote? This answers OP's question, and if I'm being downvoted due to concerns around spreading a virus then by all means, please feel free to start a discussion around why this option might be unsafe. Nobody in my family has traveled yet this holiday season and I'm not trying to be cavalier about this, so any additional input is welcome.

snakeboy 6y ago
Wouldn't your parents presumably be at much higher risk than you? It seems like the roles should be reversed, no?
- jjulius 6y ago
  Great question! Looking at it strictly from an age perspective you're correct, but there are a lot of other factors that flip that around for us. My wife has a pre-existing condition and we've been taking sheltering-in-place pretty seriously since the Bay Area shut down in mid-March. We've both been working from home and have only ventured out for walks, to sit in corners of parks away from everyone, or to go to a doctor. Groceries/food get delivered (I haven't even been into a grocery store since March, which feels weird) and we haven't hung out with friends in person or anything like that. On the flip side, both of my parents are going into work and my mother works at a nursing home (which - so far - has not had a single case of the virus), so they come into contact with far more people during the day than we do. In addition, we have an eight month old which makes us doing a day-long road trip without stopping at a hotel next to impossible. So since our contact with others remains next to 0, and my parents are totally cool with using the extra PTO to quarantine, get tested, then quarantine a bit more before driving down, we feel comfortable with it. Obviously I'm not going to view it through rose-colored glasses and act as though there's no risk, but there's a much, much smaller risk through this route than if they were to hop on a plane and come straight over sans negative test.
  - snakeboy 6y ago
    Okay, interesting - good luck! (I guess it would have been reasonable for me to have assumed you two have a particular situation and I could've avoided my snarky question :) )
    - jjulius 6y ago
      Hah, FWIW, I didn't interpret it as snark or anything negative. :)
NotTheDr01ds 6y ago
Suggestion for gas pumps: I carry rolls of dog poop cleanup bags. They make great temporary gloves that you can slip over your hand before touching the gas pump, and they slide off into the trash easily without touching the outside with the other hand. Keep in mind that Clorox wipes still take 30 seconds to kill the virus (according to the manufacturer page). Most people don't tend to wait after disinfecting a surface before touching it, meaning the cleaning agent may become more diluted and less effective. Better yet, disinfect and wear a baggie-glove while pumping. I don't disinfect the pump when wearing a plastic bag glove myself, but I do use hand sanitizer as soon as I'm done.
- jjulius 6y ago
  That's a great idea! Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to pass it along.

snakeboy 6y ago

Wouldn't your parents presumably be at much higher risk than you? It seems like the roles should be reversed, no?

jjulius 6y ago
Great question! Looking at it strictly from an age perspective you're correct, but there are a lot of other factors that flip that around for us. My wife has a pre-existing condition and we've been taking sheltering-in-place pretty seriously since the Bay Area shut down in mid-March. We've both been working from home and have only ventured out for walks, to sit in corners of parks away from everyone, or to go to a doctor. Groceries/food get delivered (I haven't even been into a grocery store since March, which feels weird) and we haven't hung out with friends in person or anything like that. On the flip side, both of my parents are going into work and my mother works at a nursing home (which - so far - has not had a single case of the virus), so they come into contact with far more people during the day than we do. In addition, we have an eight month old which makes us doing a day-long road trip without stopping at a hotel next to impossible. So since our contact with others remains next to 0, and my parents are totally cool with using the extra PTO to quarantine, get tested, then quarantine a bit more before driving down, we feel comfortable with it. Obviously I'm not going to view it through rose-colored glasses and act as though there's no risk, but there's a much, much smaller risk through this route than if they were to hop on a plane and come straight over sans negative test.
- snakeboy 6y ago
  Okay, interesting - good luck! (I guess it would have been reasonable for me to have assumed you two have a particular situation and I could've avoided my snarky question :) )
  - jjulius 6y ago
    Hah, FWIW, I didn't interpret it as snark or anything negative. :)

NotTheDr01ds 6y ago

Suggestion for gas pumps: I carry rolls of dog poop cleanup bags. They make great temporary gloves that you can slip over your hand before touching the gas pump, and they slide off into the trash easily without touching the outside with the other hand. Keep in mind that Clorox wipes still take 30 seconds to kill the virus (according to the manufacturer page). Most people don't tend to wait after disinfecting a surface before touching it, meaning the cleaning agent may become more diluted and less effective. Better yet, disinfect and wear a baggie-glove while pumping. I don't disinfect the pump when wearing a plastic bag glove myself, but I do use hand sanitizer as soon as I'm done.

jjulius 6y ago
That's a great idea! Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to pass it along.