How to Grocery Shop Without Stress Spiraling
Don’t scrub your oranges with soap, but do follow this smart advice
“I have to go to the grocery store later, and I feel like Sandra Bullock in Bird Box,” a friend wrote this week. The Covid-19 outbreak has turned mundane shopping runs into the stuff of horror movies, and in response, a literally viral video featuring a scrubs-clad doctor would have us do everything short of wearing a hazmat suit to Whole Foods. Although knowledge of this new coronavirus is evolving quickly, here’s what infectious disease and food safety specialists say are the truly important steps to take (and where that video got it wrong).
Before you go
First consider whether you should go. Ideally, people at the highest risk of severe Covid-19 —people age 65 or older, the immunocompromised, and those with severe chronic medical conditions — should avoid crowded public places like grocery stores, says Tim Lahey, MD, an infectious disease physician and director of clinical ethics at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Anybody with flu symptoms absolutely should stay home, and if you are coughing, some stores may politely ask you to leave.
“The goal is to get in and out as efficiently as possible.”
