Swine Flu and Pro Readings...

I was talking to a friend of mine who does tarot readings at a store/cafe in the Boston area and often reads for college students, professors and people who work at the local campuses. She has a great cliental but has concerns about passing swine flu on to others, as well as catching it herself. She is debating getting the shot when it is available but her biggest concern is shuffling and the contact and germs that get passed on through the deck itself, from one person to another. She is using those antibacterial wipes and gels and is now considering not allowing the client to shuffle the cards, but rather have her do all the contact. She has never read like this, usually wanting to pick up the energy of the customer, etc., so she is a bit unsettled as what to do. Overall, she is a calm person and certainly not someone who is apt to get paranoid about catching things, but this seems to be eating away at her. I mean, every time we read for someone, whether they cough, sneeze, breathe or touch the cards, we always are taking the risk of catching stuff. But I get where she is coming from, too. I suggested having the client hover their hand over the deck and concentrate on their question before she began the shuffling, which is what I am now doing instead of having them cut the deck. Anyone else taking precautions or have suggestions?

Those are good ideas.

If someone really wants the client to handle the deck, maybe the Transparent Tarot could be their deck of choice. It's plastic, so the cards will withstand a bit more cleaning-off than a paper deck could take.

I just got said Transparent deck this week... OMG I love that deck! So I have that deck "on the brain" at the moment. But it did cross my mind that it's the only deck I have that'd be resistant to moisture. When I'm satisfied with my level of familiarity with the deck, maybe that will be my deck of choice at any time where I'm doing readings dangerously close to where food and beverages reside.

Edit to add: *This* was what I originally expected the "sanitizing decks for public readings" thread was going to be about. I was surprised to click on that thread and see that the sanitizing was related to the deck's content, rather than what to do about having sitters handle the cards.

Although I've not read for anyone with apparent symptoms I keep handy a bottle of antibacterial gel or alcohol in gel. Customers are to wash their hands and use the gel before handling the deck, of course we wait a couple minutes until the gel is completely dry.

Yes, the Transparent would be a good substitute, but I think she will be sticking to her beloved Druidcraft for now. She reads from that one deck all the time. I am surprised it isn't all beat up by now. It isn't exactly on the highest quality cardstock, but it still is in one piece!

Flavio said:

Although I've not read for anyone with apparent symptoms I keep handy a bottle of antibacterial gel or alcohol in gel. Customers are to wash their hands and use the gel before handling the deck, of course we wait a couple minutes until the gel is completely dry.

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Okay, have the customers do it. Actualy, I saw an article where schools are showing the teachers only handle the bottle and dispense it, so no one is touching that, either. Hey, good idea...thank you! I'll call her back. She has a full day of reading tomorrow. She will probably love this idea!

We all touch each others' stuff all the time. Bathroom taps, doorknobs, restaurant menus, light switches, library books, clothes hangers, coins and paper money...there's no way out of it. Vaccination is the best bet.

Debra said:

We all touch each others' stuff all the time. Bathroom taps, doorknobs, restaurant menus, light switches, library books, clothes hangers, coins and paper money...there's no way out of it. Vaccination is the best bet.

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I know. That is what I said. What about the money being handed to her at the end of the day? What about using the bathroom? Right now I don't think the vaccination is available in this area, yet. Her oldest son is in his second year of college and she keeps hearing horror stories about how one kid was sick without knowing it, then high fives all his team-mates after the game who also high five all the cheerleaders and apparently they all came down with it. The whole college atmosphere is freaking her out more than anything (she reads near Harvard Square area) so I get her fears, too.

I haven't had the flu since 1996. I don't get shots either. I am OCD about my hands being clean though, and I don't use door knobs or stair handrails...maybe that is the key to my not getting sick and why I don't worry about this stuff. My husband gets shots AND the flu every year.

At the Women's Expo, I had hand sanitizer with me (OCD about clean hands and knew I wasn't going to be able to get up and leave).

I used it, and offered it to the people I read for AFTER the reading. (There is no way that I can sanitize my deck.) "If you have concerns about having touched the cards that other people have touched I would like to offer you some sanitizer." This was after they picked a stone so they could clean it to if they wanted. Most passed on the sanitizer.

I've been offering the same in my office. No one in my office has taken me up on the offer.

I don't worry about it, I don't care how many college students get it. I know what college life is like and I am shocked that more students don't get sick! The context of my public reading environment is not at all like that.

Sheri

Influenza viruses of any strain are transmitted on molecules of water from the respiratory system. That is, in air humidified by the lungs, and in mucous reduced to a fine spray curing coughing and sneezing.

Skin contact isn't a worry unless they've sneezed on their hands, trying to be polite.

Unless you get a *perfectly* airtight seal around your nose and mouth, covering your face when you cough and sneeze is no protection, either, scientists now believe. Instead, the mucous or humidified air carrying the viruses hits your hands and bounces off in unpredictable directions. The best way not to transmit is to cough or sneeze down towards the ground, facing *away* from other people or surfaces people may touch, and NOT cover your mouth to keep the infected matter travelling in predictable straight lines.

I am immunosuppressed and got given all the various warnings about heavily infected stuff. One of the worst is supermarket trolley handles. Naturally ANY surface in a public WC, as others have said - door handles, light switches etc. But the unexpected one was the trolley handles.

I'd go with dispensing the gel into the hands of the sitter and giving it a couple of minutes to dry.

On a side note - they had to take the bottles of gel out of prisons in the UK. The prisoners were nicking them, drinking the contents and getting very drunk.......