Stay out of elevators if you can

[Cyrano]

This morning, I had an appt. with an eye Dr. who had an office on the third floor of a small building. I always use stairs, but I twisted my ankle exercising yesterday, so I was stuck with the elevator -- a small one about seven feet by four feet.

I got up with no problem. But leaving, there was a woman waiting for the elevator, so I thought I'd wait 'til she went down and catch the next trip alone. However, she waved me in and, like a moron, I limped in.

The instant the door closed, her cell rang and she was no more than three feet from me. We were both wearing masks, but I was not a happy camper. I asked her to step back, but she was talking on her phone and waved me off.

A 10 second trip within three feet of a stranger talking loudly on her cell! How long does it take to get infected? An hour? A minute? Ten seconds?

I'm in FL where we're spiking right now. And I'm pissed that she wouldn't move away from me and that I was enough of an idiot to get on that elevator in the first place.

Right now, I'm wondering if I should isolate myself for the next two weeks. Yeah, I know that sounds paranoid, but if I'm going, I don't want to take anyone else with me.

My other thought is that, if I'm that worried about being exposed to Covid, what the fuck is going on in the minds of the zombies who are planning to attend their fuhrer's Republican convention. And aren't any of them giving any thought to carrying it home with them?

[soothsayer]

1. Likely need prolonged exposure

But I appreciate your caution.

Hang in there!

[LisaL]

6. Nope.

Don't need prolonged exposure, might not even need to be in the same elevator with an infected person to still catch it.

[soothsayer]

12. Fair, but that's still got to be on the low end of the probability scale

Large gatherings plus prolonged exposure plus no mask(s) probably account for most. But of course not all.

There’s the whole “touch your nose/mouth/eyes” thing. Getting direct droplets in the eyes (assuming mask is covering eyes/nose). Breathing in air dense with aerosols might be a thing, or might require prolonged exposure. Hard to say since it’s kind of a new discovery.

I guess you never know, and that’s what makes it scary.

[LakeArenal]

2. I worried about elevators ever since anti-vacs are out there.

Now. 🤪🦠😬

[LisaL]

3. I don't want to freak you out more, but a study just came out how one lady (asymptomatic) infected

her neighbor, who then infected more people, they think by using an elevator.
"New research reveals that an elevator can be a coronavirus transmission hotspot, even if an infected person doesn't have symptoms and doesn't ride with anyone else."
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-jumped-between-people-via-elevator-surfaces-study-2020-7

[bleedingulcers]

4. In our very large apartment complex

you're required to wear a mask in all public places. We see people ALL THE TIME getting out of elevators and THEN putting on their mask. Which means that they were out in their hallway without a mask, and then in the elevator too without one. Morons...

[LisaL]

8. Well, remember how Cuomo was saying people in New York who were mostly staying home

were still catching covid? They might have been mostly staying home, but there are still plenty of places to catch it if one lives in a large apartment building.

[lunatica]

5. If she was wearing a mask the whole time you're

most likely safe. If everyone wears the mask while in public the chances of contagion are quite minimal.

But it’s probably a good idea to self isolate for two weeks anyway. It’s very thoughtful and considerate of you to take action to NOT contaminate others.

[LisaL]

7. Those cloth homemade masks give people false confidence.

Especially if someone is talking in the mask. Homemade masks don't seal the face well, there is going to be leakage around the mask. Same goes for surgical mask.

[lunatica]

9. Yeah, it's definitely worrisome.

[FM123]

10. Yep!

My son works on the 12th floor of a building in Miami-Dade and I worry about him too (both for the virus and yelling at folks who take off their masks that might want to deck him). Can you go get tested? I don't know what PB county is like and what the testing criteria is, but down here in Broward we can be asymptomatic and still get tested for the drive-through at the park....

[LisaL]

11. Hopefully she didn't have covid.

Per cdc, maybe only one out 150 people have it (although it seems to be numbers for the whole country, not for state of Fl). Still, there are more chances that she didn't have it than that she did.
But yea, I would stay out of elevators if one can.

[Timewas]

13. A good article

little long but well worth the time

COVID-19: Straight Answers from Top Epidemiologist Who Predicted the Pandemic
By Dan Buettner, Blue Zones Founder

[Interview conducted on May 29, 2020. Published on June 6, 2020]



We’ve been told alternatively to not wear masks, to wear masks, to stay home, and to get out and reinvigorate the economy. Hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir both got our hopes up but now have largely fizzled. We’ve heard estimates that as many as two million Americans will die and now, with 100,000 deaths, we’ve heard we’re near the end of the crisis. Is a vaccination forthcoming? How likely are we to get the disease? What exactly should we do with our aging parents who are at the most risk?

https://www.bluezones.com/2020/06/covid-19-straight-answers-from-top-epidemiologist-who-predicted-the-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR0cEc_cNSPhxXTnW_93btbFPxVTEEXx6eQxMZmwWkmBbcEQVMNTv0YxCZc

[cayugafalls]

14. A good and kind of scary article.

Makes me a little confused on his stance of wearing a mask. Seems like he is for it, but he does not seem to put much faith AT ALL in its ability to help. Which is the confusing part.

Still a good read and worth bookmarking. Thanks!

[Timewas]

15. Time of exposure

If you read the part about sitting in a car with or without a mask it is scary. What I get from that is the confined space and time frames 10 mins without a mask and 20 mins with a mask... outside in the open air I would tend to believe they are pretty effective depending of course on the quality of the mask. These cloth masks are so variable as to the weave of the cloth.

[cayugafalls]

17. Right. The mask we have are 4 layers with a filter pocket.

We put a piece of a shop towel as the filter in the pocket. The shop towel we use was one of the towels tested in this article.

https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-diy-coronavirus-homemade-mask-material-covid/

So hopefully we have several layers of protection along with good hygiene and eye coverings we should be as good as we can be.

[LisaL]

18. One thing is clear now. Covid is not acting like a flu virus. It's not disappearing for the summer.

[HotTeaBag]

16. Elevators are one of biggest problems large corporations are having

to figure out in major cities.

It's a nightmare to just get employees up to the office - it would take hours for even a lessened workforce to get to their floor in the morning and then back down at the end of the day.

Even taking the stairs would be tricky as that's also enclosed - an tons of folks work quite a ways up.

[tanyev]

20. I've wondered about that.

In a large building with lots of people, the stairwells could also be a problem, espeically if they had a lot of traffic.

I'm in a 2-story building and I often take the elevator at the beginning and end of the day when my arms are full of stuff and I don't have a hand free to hold on to the railing for the stairs. There is something very odd about how those stairs are designed. I never have problems on other stairs, but I have come so close to losing my footing on those stairs so many times, it's not funny. So I have to calculate the instant danger of possibly falling down the stairs vs the delayed danger of taking the elevator. Fortunately our number of employees is low enough we can ride in the elevator alone. I have my mask and giant sunglasses on, I close my eyes, I try to take very shallow breaths, and hope for the best.

[Liberal In Texas]

19. It's hard to change years of behavior. You didn't want think you might offend the woman

motioning you into the elevator. But you should have and you know you should have but our conditioning works against us right now.

It was like when I went to the post office several weeks back and a lady held the door for me so I could go first. You know how you do. So in going through first I had to pass her about a foot away. Afterward I thought well that was stupid. (Even though we were both wearing masks) Next time in a similar situation, I backed up and motioned to the gentleman holding the door -No. He nodded as he understood why I was not taking him up on him holding a door for me and moved on.

It really is weird how we've had to change our way of thinking.

By the way. N95 masks. Only way to go with so many anti-maskers running around not giving a shit about how close they get to you.