The media has presented the ideal COVID-19 shopper as one wearing a mask and gloves, but Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel says the gloves may not necessarily be a good idea.
Speaking on “Fox & Friends,” Siegel said that gloves can still accumulate the virus, just like bare hands, leaving people exposed if they then touch their face, mouth, nose, or eyes.
“Gloves accumulate germs, gloves accumulate viruses,” Siegel said on the show. “You’re going to not even realize when you touch something then you have it on the gloves, then you transfer it to your face, then you can get infected.”
Siegel said that regular hand washing is a smarter choice and advised against the gloves since they would have to be changed regularly. Should people still wear gloves, he advised them to take them off from the inside so as to avoid touching the outside with their bare hands.
“You can’t change them enough to make a difference so I vote ‘no’ on that one. Yes, on the continued hand-washing,” he said.
In Washington, state health officials cautioned people that gloves are no sure protection against the virus.
“It is possible for the virus to spread when someone doesn’t have symptoms, but this is not the main way it spreads,” the Washington State Department of Health said in a blog post. “It is also possible for the virus to spread though droplets on hard surfaces, though this is also not the main way it spreads. That’s why it’s important that we wash our hands and try not to touch our faces, in case we touched a surface that had transmissible virus on it. If you wear gloves, touch a hard surface, and then touch your face with your gloved hands, the gloves have not protected you at all. If you don’t touch your face, you didn’t need the gloves. Just wash your hands.”
The good news, however, is that no evidence exists indicating that COVID-19 spreads through food, so people do not have to disinfect their groceries.
“We have no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 is spreading through food at all,” the blog post continued. “Not through take-out orders, groceries, or produce. When you return home from the grocery store, please thoroughly wash your hands, but there is no reason to try to disinfect your groceries. And please, don’t put disinfecting chemicals like household cleaners on the food you’re going to eat.”
What about the N95 masks? Should people still wear those while shopping? Given the current shortage, it is probably best to leave those for medical workers, suggests Joshua Petrie, an assistant research professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.
“They’re so much more important for health care workers who are actually treating patients and are at a much higher risk of being infected,” Petrie told VOX.
A CDC spokesperson recently told TIME that people should not be wearing gloves or masks to shop unless they have been exposed to the virus or are showing symptoms.
“You [also] have a higher risk of exposing yourself to something if you take the gloves and mask off wrong,” said the spokesperson.
Those guidelines from the CDC may change in time.