Swine Flu and Pro Readings...

[cardlady22]

I'm not a professional anything, but I didn't think an antibacterial would do anything against a virus. I've not gotten into the gels since it doesn't take the little bad guys off your hands, etc. Would a wipe actually be better at swiping any germs off the skin or surfaces?

 

[Umbrae]

myself - I think the paranoia is more dangerous than the atche one enn one anything.

Was reading at a birthday party gig last night, three of the attendees had already had a flu strain.

So I just continued to read palms ("oooh look - you have a via lacivia line...") and Tarot...washed my hands a couple times...

I honestly believe that the paranoia provided by the press is the most dangerous aspect. The press will inflate severity to create paranoia so you keep glued to your 'News source' and advertising dollars flow into the paranoia creating machine. Don't buy into it. Don't change your lifestyle. Eat well, think healthy, use soap and hot water, move forward with your life.

Or...you could live in a plastic bubble...

Heck - we survived the Hong Kong flu back in the late sixties (or early seventies)...don't buy into the paranoia machine. (you know we used to use antenna's. Now we have to pay to have a cable or satellite signal to fill our house with paranoia! - we pay to have our houses filled with crap!!!)

Turn it off.

 

[satinangel]

Moderator Note

Off-topic posts are removed without notice.

 

[gregory]

I would say that the client will be as wary of picking up her germs as she theirs. I wouldn't worry, myself - I think there is a lot of unnecessary fuss about this - but alcohol wipes are good; soap and water (apparently, according to my doctor) better. And the hand waved over the deck should do. The Transparent deck won't help that much, unless you are up for actually WASHING it between readings..... Germs can stick to door knobs so why not to plastic.

But - have tissues handy and if they show a sign of a sneeze, cover YOUR face if they can't get to theirs in time ! Who wants the common cold, either ?

 

[shelikes2read]

I'm thinking that the best way to avoid having any germs transmitted from client-to-client or to the reader would be to not have clients handle the deck for the time being.

If there's any sort of bug going around, H1N1 or otherwise, avoiding having multiple people handle the deck one after another will help remove one possible route of transmission.

Once upon a time, I was one of the interpreters at a meeting of a regional organization for deaf-blind people. Most of the deaf-blind at the meeting communicated via tactile sign language (where one person signs directly into the other person's hands). On the day of the meeting, one person in attendance had a headcold.

Then everybody talked to everybody else, including a ton of hand-to-hand contact between deaf-blind members or between members and interpreters. In a week, EVERYBODY I knew who was at the meeting, including myself, had a headcold.

This was a few years before hand sanitizers existed, unfortunately. The first time I saw Purell, I thought of that deaf-blind group meeting and I wanted to give the inventor of hand sanitizers a Nobel Prize. Even though they're not antiviral, stopping SOME kinds of germs from spreading is better than nothing.

In any event, to drag this post back on topic, my experience at the Headcold Meeting leaves me thinking that having multiple people handle a deck during a time when there's some sort of bug going around is tempting fate.

 

[DrDave]

I am immunosuppressed and got given all the various warnings about heavily infected stuff.
One of the worst is supermarket trolley handles. ..

At my supermarket they have wetwipes but they appear medically industrial
Pretty good I thought
DrDave

 

[Grizabella]

You know, the flu is more a respiratory thing and is passed through people's breath. Using wipes and stuff isn't going to protect against that. Wearing a mask will, but who wants to read wearing a mask, I know? If she really doesn't want to be exposed to the flu, then just not reading at all till she can get immunized is the only thing that's going to protect her from it. Of course, using wipes and hand sanitizer is a good thing, anyway, but it's not a sure protection against the flu.

 

[nisaba]

I'm not a professional anything, but I didn't think an antibacterial would do anything against a virus. I've not gotten into the gels since it doesn't take the little bad guys off your hands, etc. Would a wipe actually be better at swiping any germs off the skin or surfaces?

And influenza germs are contracted by inhaling them out of the air, not from touching surfaces.

 

[Debra]

That's misleading. She coughs on her hand or wipes her nose, hands you a glass of water or shakes hands with you, you wipe your nose...you're cooked.

*shrug*

A lot of people here are sick with flu, and they're very sick.

 

[gregory]

debra's right - once you sneeze or cough and touch the droplets (as in sneezing into a bare hand) and then - for instance - shake hands, or touch something (your cards ) - the droplets are up for spreading around.

I used to work in Public Health. Believe me, this is big stuff. People just don't THINK.

It's the same with diarrhoea. Spread by faecal oral contact. So they all say - well, who goes around contacting other people's.... well.... so it will be OK.....

But LOADS of people go to the toilet and don't wash their hands and then touch something and before you know it, an epidemic. Hand washing is CRITICAL. It is the BIG thing on ALL the flu control posters here and on the European mainland. The single thing that would do most to stem the spread. WASH HANDSIES, people.

ETA - antibacterials don;t necessarily kill viruses when used as drugs, but - for instance - soap and water is one of the best bug killers out there, When I got a needlestick injury the FIRST thing I knew to do was wash with as much soap and water as I could. That's what infection control teaches you. It does a lot more good than people think - if you have the choice, it rates higher than antibacterial and alcohol wipes. Nurses out in the field are given the wipes but are told to wash their hands properly at every opportunity. And I bet few here wash them properly. I'll find the info on how to do it right later.....