Estimates of COVID risk rankings for different activities when together with people in the same household?

post by nonzerosum · 2020-04-29T01:13:33.911Z · LW · GW · No comments

This is a question post.

Contents

  If you're in the same household as someone or visiting a family member's house for multiple hours e.g. for dinner, should you assume you'll get what they have and vice versa, or is spread far from guaranteed? And what are the most important things to avoid with extended visits/visitors?
None
No comments

My questions in this thread may be relevant to people with roommates, or people who are visiting a small number of friends or family in person, but who want to still minimize risk.

I've seen and liked: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/04/covid19-pizza-risk-estimator.html

Here are some questions I have based on situations I'm running into most frequently:

• what's the risk level of hugging an extended family member that I'm not living with?
• what's the risk level of being together inside, but 6 ft apart? how much better is 6ft than 3ft or 9ft?
• what's the risk level of shaking hands and then washing hands before touching anything else?
• if I'm at an extended family member's house generally 4-6 ft apart, and eating off their silverware, using their serving utensils, etc, but I'm also washing my hands before eating, using tissues to open doors, etc, am I better off or are my protective measures moot if I'm spending a few hours with them?

And of course all of these would be estimates.

My biggest overall questions are:

• how much benefit do protective measures do against people who could be (non-obviously i.e. no fever) sick in the same household, where no one is isolating? is it worth keeping 6 ft from extended family or if you're in the same house does it not do anything?
• if protective measures are actually helpful even against people you're visiting for a few hours, what are the things that are particularly critical to avoid, and what are the things that are less important?

These questions are meaningful because right now I'm in the spot where our shared desire for human interaction has us going to one family member's house for a couple hours a couple times a week, but where my fear of getting sick (from one of them that's either asymptomatic or early before they realize) is high enough that I'm being a germaphobe while there (though I'm not willing to ask them to wear masks, basically I'm just doing the stuff where the burden is on me not them), while at the same time wishing I knew if it was worth being a germaphobe or whether all my efforts are moot anyway.

If you're in the same household as someone or visiting a family member's house for multiple hours e.g. for dinner, should you assume you'll get what they have and vice versa, or is spread far from guaranteed? And what are the most important things to avoid with extended visits/visitors?

Answers

No comments

Comments sorted by top scores.