NOT wearing gloves will reduce the spread of COVID 19?!? what!?!?!

Greetings fellow ATS'ers, from Jekyll Island, GA. This is my first time starting a thread. What I i was told at a McDonalds drive thru yesterday spun me into a dimension of conspiracy paranoia that I haven't been in in a long time. My wife and I stopped at McD's and as we're sitting there waiting to pull up to the window, we noticed the cashier wasn't wearing gloves. I've been working in foodservice as a manager and/or worker for most of my life, and consider it best practice to wear disposable gloves I the kitchen while doing anything in the kitchen, regardless of the current situation with the Corona virus, especially handling money. We got to the window and and paid, and my wife asked the cashier, half jokingly and half seriously, " what's up with the bare hands? McDonalds can't afford gloves lol?" I could not believe what the young lady said.
She told us that one of the local health inspectors, many of whom I'm well acquainted with
from ten years of managing local school system kitchens, visited them the day before and advised them not to wear disposable gloves unless absolutley necessary, like handling raw meat, etc., as the disposable gloves would PROMOTE THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 VIRUS(!!!)".
As I said earlier, I have worked in food service most of my adult life, the last 10 years spent as a kitchen manager for Glynn County Schools. I have a degree in culinary arts and institutional food service, Servsafe certification, and I'm even a proctor for the servsafe test. Not one time have I EVER known a county health inspector to advise food service workers NOT to wear disposable gloves.
The young lady in the drive thru window was just as concerned and bewildered by this as we were, but she told us she had to follow the instructions of the health inspector or she would lose her job.
Can any of you out there help me understand the logic of this? She was told that the virus could live on the surface of the gloves for up to three days. NO ONE WEARS DISPOSABLE GLOVES FOR 3 DAYS! I've had to discipline plenty of employees for not changing their gloves after every task, and to change their gloves at least every 15 minutes if they were handling money. I'm sure disposable gloves are in short supply, and are much need in more critical areas, like the hospital and police force, but for a health inspector to tell food service workers not to wear disposable gloves" to stop the spread of the Virus" has me strapping on my tin foil hat. Is the health inspector ignorant and uneducated? I highly doubt that. Is the health department intentionally giving out false information and misguiding workers to promote the spread of the virus? I hope not. But is there any logical reason a health inspector would discourage the use of gloves when dealing with the public during a pandemic situation? Maybe I missed some new information about how food borne illnesses and viruses in general are transmitted. The only thing I can think of is the more people get the virus, the more it spreads in a city or an area, the more of that sweet federal pandemic aide money a county or state will receive. Much like how the National Free and Reduced Lunch scam works in school kitchens( a topic for another subject I plan to post here). If anyone can talk me down and help me understand what the actual F#@% this "don't wear gloves to stop the Virus" madness is about, please do. This tin foil hat is getting heavy and it's starting to make my brain hurt.

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

This is so stupid. Wearing gloves is a proven way to help prevent the spread of diseases. They even help people remember not to touch their face and to be more cautious than normal.

As long as the gloves are changed regularly they absolutely are helpful. I work in food and we are now requiring everyone including cashiers to wear gloves and change them whenever changing tasks.

Someone is misinformed.

There was something about having too clean hands can mean that should the virus get on the skin its got no competition for space and can run rampant but if you're replacing gloves every 15-20 mins make sure they're properly disposed of as probably pulling them off badly may transfer loads to your skin.

I'd follow protocol more from a doctor etc who knows their onions than someone who may be interpreting guidance totally wrong so maybe rining up their boss and finding out where this guidance has come from?

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

“While gloves can protect your hands from coming into contact with these droplets, they will still remain on the surface of the gloves and may even last there for longer if they are not washed frequently, leading to an increased risk of catching the virus by touching your face or food with your gloves, as well as the risk of passing it on to others,” Deo told the outlet.
She said that regularly washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer is a better defense against the virus

Source
Take it or leave it, that's what the Doc says.

Probably because people are not changing them as directed and it was on the money supply in China. Remember, they were burning their currency

a reply to: Maxatoria

There was something about having too clean hands can mean that should the virus get on the skin its got no competition for space and can run rampant

yeahhh viruses don't replicate like that, that's not how it works at all. they need a host cell, a very specific host cell, in the Wu-flu's case a cell with an ACE2 receptor.

maybe that's true for bacteria, but certainly not viruses

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

“While gloves can protect your hands from coming into contact with these droplets, they will still remain on the surface of the gloves and may even last there for longer if they are not washed frequently, leading to an increased risk of catching the virus by touching your face or food with your gloves, as well as the risk of passing it on to others,” Deo told the outlet.
She said that regularly washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer is a better defense against the virus

Source
Take it or leave it, that's what the Doc says.

That's exactly what it's about. Wearing gloves makes people feel like they're safe, but the gloves can still pick up the virus and then you're touching everything with the gloves and spreading it just like if you weren't wearing them.

I've always thought about this at hotels. If you ever watch the cleaning people working on the rooms, they're wearing gloves, cleaning showers and toilets and everything else, picking up dirty towels, and then, with the same gloves, they put clean towels in the room.

a reply to: face23785
Maybe states and counties need to do a PSA on this and tell all the restaurant and convenience workers they aren't helping matters any.

thanks y'all, very much. I'm beginning to calm down now. a little lol..

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

Look up viral load, thats what is getting the Dr's & nurses

Wash hands with gloves on in hotter water should help.

Well, gloves may be necessary if you are constantly washing your hands. Humans naturally secrete antimicrobials from the skin. These do wash off when you wash your hands.

en.wikipedia.org...

Also if people bite their fingers or nails or have ruff hands with cuts on them the gloves offer a protection barrier.

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

one would have to know what the health inspector REALLY said

most people i has had the misfortune to encounter in thier role as staff at fast food outlets - had to be blunt - shoe sizes higher than IQ .

as you are " in teh system " - maybe contact the dept responsible ????

they may be unaware that thier advice has mutated in the wild

yes!! you are exactly right. it's easy for me imagine a scenario like a health inspector saying something like" just wearing gloves isn't effective if you aren't washing your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water" could mutate into " she said we shouldn't wear gloves". is a reply to: ignorant_ape

maybe it might have to do with as one member said not changing them. think about it, in a clinical setting the gloves are changed after each patient. in a lab most times they are handling the same substance/pathogen, then when they switch to another they change them.

on a severing line, or tray line you don't really touch that many people. well you could, but when i had my shop and repaired kitchen equipment, in the cafeterias that had serving lines they didn't have contact with customers hands that i saw. and in the prep areas they were touching the same thing over and over. then when they moved on they put on new gloves.

now at a drive thru or on the counter, if your touching the money, or peoples hands and contact someone who is positive, and the virus transfers onto the gloves and you touch the next person i could see how it could be passed on. just as much so if they just used their bare hands unless washing them inbetween.

something i saw the other night on the news where they were talking about shortages. they showed a nurse that used hand sanitizer on the gloves as she moved from one patient to another. that kinda surprised me.


on a side note, when i had my shop i had a service call to one of the well known cafeteria style restaurants. did a lot of work for them. and would be in working on stuff right before they would open for lunch. the mangers would always taste the food on the steam tables. they would grab a hand full of spoons and go down the line and taste each dish. there was one manger that didn't do it that way, he took one spoon and went down the line tasting and would wash the spoon off in the steam table water. needless to say i didn't eat at that one ever.

The problem with gloves is when they are never changed, so give a false sense of security. In most non-medical situations regularly washing your hands with soap and water is better than wearing gloves for long periods. Dirty gloves may protect the wearer, but won't protect people they come in contact with.

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

Don't listen to stupid stuff wherever it comes from.

Just like the medical experts in the US saying don't wear masks to the American public, which is bs, this advice is bs too.

ha, was just surfin the box and saw a Burger King commercial, had a young lady working the drive thru. she had gloves on.

a reply to: MantheDevilsApe

For correct PPE use the user need to be trained.

How many people walking around with N95 masks on know that they need to be professionally fit tested? How many of them have we seen adjusting them with unsanitized hands?

Same with gloves. If the user doesn’t understand the transmission pros and cons while wearing them and the correct disposal procedure they can do more harm than good. One example is the false sense of security they give the wearer. They may wear them for a longer period than intended and touch items that they would normally be cautious touching.

Just my two bits!

Stay safe.