COVID at Lake Martin AL

[rgranger]

So this week, Kay Ivy (the Governor or Alabama) officially closed all non-essential businesses. Luckily marinas are considered "essential". (I'm guessing Kay owns a boat).

Anyway, the Marina store managers were still doing their part to be safe. There is a sign on the door of the Marina Store with a phone number and you call a number, tell them what you need (... more beer and a bag of ice please...) they bring it to the door.

Kind of awkward but it worked. Most people were very good about staying 10 feet apart and/or waiting for someone to exit a peer before they entered. In truth everyone stayed about 100 feet apart. Most people were still chatty but some people acted like you could catch COVID if you made eye contact ....I would stare right at them with my COVID eyes.. (Where is Weird Al Yankovic when we need him)

The dock boys were all wearing gloves (no masks) and people wanting gas were not allowed to leave their boat to pump it or insert their credit cards. Only the dock boys were allowed to touch the equipment. They would sprits some disinfectant on the cards before handling them.

Curious times we live in.

 

[shemandr]

The dock guys would be better off wearing masks instead of gloves. You could have Covid all over your hands but if you can't touch your nose, mouth or eyes you won't get sick. If you don't have masks use one of the sun dickies to cover your lower face and wear glasses. It's better than nothing. There is a report out of MIT that viral particles may travel much further from a sneeze or cough than 6'. So stay well away from anyone who sneezes or coughs. Try like 30'.
If you wear disposable gloves and pick up virus particles and touch your unmasked face you can get sick! Frequent hand washing is probably more protective than gloves. Typical latex gloves have porosities and the longer you wear the more likely it is that that micro-organisms can get through them especially if you cleanse them with soap or chemicals. They are mostly useful if you have an open wound on your hands. The Covid Virus is not thought to enter wounds and travel in your bloodstream. It needs to land on mucus membranes of the nose and mouth or eyes.
We should all be sanitizing our credit cards before and after use. Forget cash for now!

 

[John Nantz]

Andrew - excellent post!
This is where the political entity in charge of health, say, the County Health Department, should be checking up on the "essential" operations. I have never read or heard one thing about our, or any other, health department checking up or inspecting an "essential" operation or worker. Have all the "essential" workers had any training in prevention? Today that should be a part of their Safety Plan and OSHA requires one at least for construction workers, some of who are "essential"*. How can we know they aren't spreaders themselves???
*In Puget Sound the marina fuel docks are considered "essential" so the operator (Port Authority) [edit: many of the fuel docks are in Port owned marinas] should be taking what Andrew wrote into consideration. And the Kitsap County seat which is in Port Orchard, that city considers a well drilling job "essential" because it is for potable water. There has been no news about a water shortage. If they do I'd be surprised. Wonder how they justified that? Maybe they don't want to pay for a Stop Work order?