How to get gas in your car without corona in your lungs

 I first trained as a medical doctor — and married a registered nurse — and today I’m putting on my medical hat to write about Covid-19 and how not to catch it at the gas station.

As you’ve no doubt heard many times, physical distancing between people can slow the proliferation of Covid-19. If you want proof of this, you need go no further than look at the recent history of Covid-19 in China and South Korea: both countries had large epidemics and yet were able to halt the exponential rise in Covid-19 infections — mostly through physical distancing and hygiene, though having tests readily available also helped a lot.  Many other areas have been less successful because governments have not acted so quickly or so thoroughly.  That means that in many countries — at least at this time — the onus may be more on us individually to take action that’s protective to us and others.  In addition to following the directives in our country or area, we can each take common sense precautions that can make a difference.

Physical distancing and improving hygiene are things all of us can do. What is not so clear are the details.  “Wash your hands frequently.”  How often?  And what if you are in your own home, how often then? And what is the best way to protect yourself when going shopping or getting gas?

Pretty well everything about physical distancing and hygiene
during this pandemic depends on two key protective assumptions:

1: ASSUME THAT EVERY PERSON CARRIES THE CORONAVIRUS, INCLUDING YOURSELF

Most people will not be carriers, but you have no way of telling. Anyone of us could be a symptomless carrier. Taking distancing precautions—staying 6 feet away from all others outside your home — is the best way of avoiding playing Russian roulette with germs you cannot see.  Of course, it is also true that someone at home in your family could be a carrier, but physical distancing within a household is not usually advised (unless a member of the household is sick). So long as households are isolated from other households, the spread of the disease can be interrupted.

2: ASSUME THAT EVERY PUBLIC ITEM THAT MAY HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY OTHERS CARRIES THE CORONAVIRUS

Most items will not be contaminated, of course, but there is no way of telling in advance. Taking steps to disinfect or keep distance from such objects, is the second main way of avoiding playing a game of Russian roulette with potentially lethal germs you cannot see. Because the virus can survive on shiny surfaces for about three days, avoid touching surfaces that people outside your home might have touched, especially door handles, elevator buttons, etc., which have been touched by many different people.  Instead, use gloves, or your elbow (less ideal and difficult to use on a round door-handle). Or, if you do touch such surfaces with your bare hands, no worries, just wash your hands or sanitize then before touching your face — the virus, as you’ve probably heard, gets into your body through your nose, mouth or eyes, and it’s usually conveyed there by your hands.

Plans for the Gas Station

Armed with these two very useful protective assumptions, you can work out what you need to do in most circumstances.  But it does take some thought in advance. Recently, my wife and I discussed how to get gas safely. Neither of us is particularly germ adverse, and in many decades of marriage we had never discussed such a thing before. My wife, remembering her experience as a nurse, suggested wearing gloves. I listened.  We doctors are generally not nearly so well trained in hygiene as nurses are.  

Next day, armed with latex gloves, everything seemed to be going pretty well at the gas station, until I retrieved my credit card from the gas pump and the thought occurred to me: “Oh… any one of the previous 100 users might have breathed or coughed on their credit card… which could therefore be contaminated with COVID-19 virus… and these viruses could have traveled right into the credit card slot, ready to board the next transit vehicle — my credit card! What am I now going to do with my slight-possibility-of-virus-laden credit card which could-perhaps-even-if-unlikely convey a few hundred thousand viruses to me?” I put the credit card on the floor of my trunk — not the best solution. As I said, thinking things through in advance is a really good idea.

gas station protocol

Next time I was more prepared. Courtesy of my ex-nurse wife, I carried latex gloves, sanitizing wipes, and plastic bags in my car.  

At the gas station, I put on my gloves.  I decided in advance to use my right hand on the potentially contaminated fuel dispenser and my left hand on my car which is unlikely to be contaminated (since only I touch it — if I had contaminated my own car, it would mean I was already a carrier of the virus).

With my left hand I carried a small plastic bag. With my right hand I inserted my credit card and punched the metal buttons as directed (feeling well-protected by that glove). When I pulled out the credit card, I placed it in the small plastic bag, taking care not to touch the outside of the bag with the credit card. The inside of the bag was now potentially contaminated, but since the outside was uncontaminated, it was safe to put the bag in the car, making sure that I opened the car door with my left (uncontaminated) hand.

I then opened the cap of my car’s fuel tank with my left hand, filled the car with gas using my right hand, and then closed my car’s fuel tank with my left hand. My right hand never touched the car.

Now it was time to remove the gloves from my hands before touching the car doors. When I did my internship in surgery, most of the sterile technique was carried out by nurses, but the doctors did have to learn some sterile technique, including how to take off their gloves without contaminating themselves or anyone else. Remembering these simple, useful lessons, I took hold of each glove at the wrist and pulled it off in such a way that the glove turned completely inside-out. I had planned to throw the inside-out gloves into the garbage can, but there was no garbage can. So, I took out another plastic bag and placed the inside-out gloves in the plastic bag.   

The two plastic bags and I drove home. I was the driver. At home I took the plastic bag with my credit card to the sink, and washed the credit card and then my hands with soap.  And yes, I sang “happy birthday” twice — while thinking that I really must come up with a different 20 second song. Then I threw away the two plastic bags in the garbage.

This worked for me, but others I’ve spoken to have different variations. A good friend of ours douses her credit card with anti-microbial solution immediately after withdrawing it from the machine.  If you don’t have gloves, or you’d prefer not to use gloves, you can also wash your hands with anti-microbial solution immediately after touching the gas pump. These viruses are quite easily destroyed by soap or sanitizing solutions.

It is worth it?

One guy asked me: “Is all that really necessary?”  Well, in retrospect, it might not have been necessary because the gas pump I used might not have been contaminated at all, and, even if it was, the virus might not have infected me. You could say it’s not necessary in the same sense that a seat-belt wasn’t necessary if you didn’t have an accident. Though there’s also a difference that makes it harder to appreciate the danger of Covid-19: with a car accident you know when you’ve had one, while with Covid-19 contamination you have no idea for several days (if you get symptoms) or never (if you don’t) — unless you are able to get tested.

From the gas station example, and especially from the two protective assumptions it’s based on (outside your home, everyone and everything they’ve touched might be contaminated), you can work out how, in any situation, you can protect yourself from these invisible particles that can cause so much damage. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. You can make a game of it — finding different ways to outsmart these tiny parcels of deadly information that take over your cells and turn them into virus-creating machines. If you think of some more efficient ways of getting the same protections, please share below.

PROTECTING YOUR HOME

Thinking through what you decide to do can also help you not do things that are unnecessary. For example, once we are in our home, my wife and I do not wash our hands more frequently than we normally would. We assume that our home is not contaminated (knowing that if it was, it is quite likely that we both would be too) and we do our best to keep it uncontaminated by being stringent after any excursion into potentially contaminated territory (like shops) through washing our hands and any objects (like shopping) we bring from outside.

If you are a family at home, think of protecting your home — and you in it — as a unit against the virus.  Therefore, anything that comes into your home from a public source, including you, needs to be cleaned. With mail or cardboard-wrapped parcels, for example, one option is to avoid opening them for 24 hours (because the virus can survive up to 24 hours on cardboard) or, if you need to open it earlier, disinfect it outside, or wear gloves and unwrap it outside. And then wash your hands. An American friend of mine who is staying in Italy (she’s in a locked-down area and not allowed to leave) described going shopping: she goes out with her home-made face-mask and gloves, keeps her distance from everyone, and then, when she returns, washes her hands and every item she has bought. The mask she wears has two main functions: it reminds her not to touch her face; and it reminds other people to keep their distance.  

In thinking through you plans for avoiding Covid-19 and taking action on those plans, you are doing all you can to stop the virus from infecting you and from using you to infect other people. You are not only protecting yourself, you are also contributing to the health of your neighborhood, your country and the whole world!

Wishing you very good health. And may you find ways of enjoying the changes in lifestyle, discovering new freedoms within the physical restrictions!