Deadly Dust

I’ve been all over the cleaning forums trying to help you guys realize the importance of using masks.

Here’s a guy asking if the dust from vacuum cleaners could be a problem.

Can the virus get on us from using our vacuum cleaner?

If it can, what do you do to prevent this and how do you clean and disinfect your vacuum cleaner so you don’t cross contaminate to the next customer.

Do you just clean and disinfect your vacuum cleaner after each job?. How far do you go, do you take it all apart?

Really, we should consider whether you even want to use a vacuum cleaner at all.

Drape a plastic trash bag over that vac and watch the bag expand. It’s sending dust all over the place. At least wear an N95 dust mask. Maybe just skip vacuuming. Prespray then crb it then extract. I did a bunch of jobs that way and they all came out fine. Not correct procedure I know, but a lot safer for us who need to breathe.
At least the dust won’t be flying all over and settling on everything.

We have always worn shoe covers. They go on and off at the front door. We have always worn work gloves but now we also wear powder free surgical gloves on every job.

Yes you should also be wearing an N95 mask, probably more important than gloves because your mouth and nose are direct pathways to the virus’ target – your lungs. Your eyes also, wear eye protection. Here is Seattle I see about 25% of the people in masks, up from 5% just a week ago.

CDC is just now rethinking and recommending masks. Before they were saying they were only for health workers but that was because there was such a shortage (possibly due to hoarders). Now they’re recommending we all wear what is called N95 as it supposed trap particles down to 0.3 microns, smaller than these virus’s.

FDA is pissed at China and excluded us Americans from importing their masks, called KN95, yet you can buy them off Amazon where they come directly from China and are every bit as good as N95 masks. Shameful that the FDA would allow politics to let Americans die of the virus rather than let outsiders allow us protection.

Where can I get masks – Watch Amazon, the sellers vary from day to day but there’s always someone there selling them. The price gougers are gone and prices are back to fairly reasonable. Buy 10 paks. Mist with 5% peroxide or disinfectant at the end of the day and reuse them the next day.

amazon is all out we tried

Try again. It changes daily. I just looked and there are several. Search N95 and KN95.
Also last I checked, CDC says don’t get your mask wet but I’ve been misting mine with disinfectant daily. You almost have to if you want to reuse them, which is kind of imperative with the shortages. I saw one ER worker video – she was saying she was issued one mask for the whole year. Ain’t that crazy!

What about shoes?

Feet are a long way from our face. Is the dust an issue?

Corona cvirus can survive up to 5 days on shoes according to one article.

I was just talking to my wife about this.
We guessed at 2-3 days and thought that would be high.
This is crazy

They found it still on one of the cruise ships for 17 days!

Joker – So DON’T PUT YOUR SHOES IN YOUR MOUTH….

Take your shoes off before you go into your house

Foot to mouth.

Notice what your hands do when you take off your shoes.

High likelihood your hands will touch your face before you wash your hands. Handle your socks before tossing them in the hamper?
Foot to mouth

Seattle was one of the first outbreaks. Very few people were seen wearing masks. Like Vanity was at work.

Now, we’ve just passed our (first) peak and I’m happy to report a good percentage of people are wearing masks.

At my local Post Office it went from three female clerks I gave masks to a month ago to those clerks plus 5 of 12 patrons three weeks ago, to 12 of 15 two weeks ago to all but 1 guy (behind the counter) wearing masks yesterday. This is a small sample but fairly representative of what we will see around peaks – not until the majority of people in busy places wear masks will it come under control.

Don’t be vain. Be humble. Wear Your Mask.

Wearing a mask shows you care about the people around you. With the latent incubation who knows who’s carrying it? It could be me or you or your wife or your kids. So just be safe and wear your mask.

I think that’s what the wives are saying… Shouldn’t we be wearing masks?  Does this makeshift one look ok on me?  Are you going to mock me ? Really?

Anyone trying to do it right should be encouraged.  In time we will get it right.

The scary part for me is looking at the graphs – you see spikes in the number of cases followed by gradual declines.  These spikes could be one carrier sneezing in a busy place. What else could it be?

Not to be an alarmist, but that’s exactly the story that unfolded here in Seattle.  Read about how the virus was NOT contained even with Ebola type containment strategies from day 1, starting with patient zero.  All it took was one person carrying the disease to not be accounted for.

To me, wearing a mask is way more important than anything else we can be doing, including washing our hands 10 times a day. It’s not going through your skin.   It’s a respiratory thing.  It’s getting into our lungs that we must prevent. So please wear your mask.