Representatives of the big three package deliverers in the United States U.P.S., FedEx and the Postal Service insisted there is no need. The C.D.C. has advised that there is a low risk of transmission on packages, said Matthew OConner, a spokesman for U.P.S. FedEx, in a statement. The guidance from the W.H.O. is that the likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low, and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, traveled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.
David Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, noted that the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, along with the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, has indicated that there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 is being spread through the mail.
This is because many scientists think it is quite unlikely that you can catch the coronavirus by touching a surface that has the virus on it and subsequently touching your own mouth or nose. (One review of scientific publications on the subject concluded that hand washing seems to cut the risk of respiratory infection by a mere 16 percent but added that the studies examined were of poor quality and more research was urgently needed.)
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Germanys equivalent of the F.D.A. advises that while the virus could, theoretically, be transmitted through this kind of smear infection, as opposed to the standard droplet infection, there have been no known cases in which individuals have caught the coronavirus by touching a contaminated surface and then transferring the virus to their mouth or nose. Then again, contact transmission is notoriously difficult to study and document.
A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week shed more light on the subject. A group of researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the C.D.C., Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, misted virus particles into a rotating drum and studied how long the floating particles survived on various surfaces. They found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus survived for up to 24 hours on cardboard three times longer than its cousin, the original SARS.
In that light, you might expect the virus to remain viable for hours but probably not days on mail, said James Lloyd-Smith, one of the studys authors. But there are important caveats.
Among these: The study specifically looked at aerosolized virus particles, rather than the fine droplets that infected people emit with each cough or sneeze. The line between aerosols and droplets is fuzzy, but, broadly, droplets are bigger and settle more quickly, while aerosols are smaller and float for longer.
I am texting the doctor. I am texting Ts five siblings on a group chat, texting my parents and my brother, texting Ts business partner and employees and his dearest friends and mine, in loops and loops, with hearts and thankful prayer-hands emoji. He is too exhausted, too weak, to answer all the missives winging to him at all hours. Dont sugarcoat it for my family, he tells me. He has asked for the gray sweater that was his fathers, that his father wore when he was alive. He will not take it off.
Its as if we are in a time warp, in which we have accelerated at 1 time speed, while everyone around us remains in the present already the past to us and they, blissfully, unconsciously, go about their ordinary lives, experiencing the growing news, the more urgent advisories and directives, as a vast communal experience, sharing posts and memes about cabin fever, about home-schooling, about social distancing, about how hard it all is, while were living in our makeshift sick ward, living in what will soon be the present for more and more of them. I took out the kitty litter, CK says, and I saw some people standing on the corner, and I was like, I want to see strangers! And then I heard them saying: Its actually been really nice. Its been a chance to connect as a family. And I was like, No, actually, I dont want to see strangers, and I came back in.
CK and I confine ourselves to the half bathroom, the one with the litter box, which she is now in charge of. Over the past days and days, drifty, dreamy CK has become my chief assistant on my nursing/housekeeping/kitchen rotations, feeding the cat and cleaning the litter box, folding laundry, preparing Ts small meals, washing dishes and pots, coordinating with me in a complicated choreography when I come out of the sickroom holding dishes so we can get them into the dishwasher without my touching the handles or having to wash my dry, raw hands even more. I feel like were talking to each other more like equals now, she says. She is right.
I am consumed with trying to keep us safe. I wipe down the doorknobs, the light switches, the faucets, the handles, the counters with disinfectant. I swab my phone with alcohol. I throw the days hoodie into the laundry at night as if it were my scrubs. I wash all our towels, again and again. When CK wants to shower, I wipe down the whole main bathroom where T refills his water cup, where he has had diarrhea, where he coughs and spits out phlegm with bleach, take out Ts washcloth, towels and bathmat and replace them with clean ones, telling CK to try not to touch anything, to shower and go right back to her room. Then I do the same. If T needs to use the bathroom before were ready to shower, I do the whole bleach routine again before we go in. Twice, in the first week of the illness, I eased him into an Epsom-salt bath. But not since then. He is too weak. It would be too much. There is no way. When he shuffles down the hall from the bedroom to the bathroom, he lists against the wall. He splashes water on his face in the bathroom, and that has to be enough.
I run through possibilities. Im not so worried about CK getting sick. I can nurse her too. Its if I get sick. I show her how to do more things, where things go, what to remember, what to do if What if T is hospitalized? What if I am? Could a 16-year-old be left to fend for herself at home, alone? How would she get what she needed? Could she do it? For how long?
Though Shopify has been policing the new sites, it also encourages its customers to go into the dropshipping business. It offers a guide for starting such a business and makes money from them by charging a monthly fee and a percentage of sales. The Canadian company is one of the largest turnkey e-commerce sites in the world, bringing in $1.5 billion last year. In February, Shopify announced that it had hosted over a million businesses.
New sites selling coronavirus products come online every day. A majority of the sites tracked by The Times appeared over the past two weeks, including over 70 registered since Wednesday, according to data from DomainTools, a cyberforensics company. The sites target users around the world and are in English, French, Spanish, German, Romanian, Icelandic and other languages.
The registrations are part of a larger increase in Coronavirus-related activity, said Chad Anderson, senior security researcher at DomainTools. In February, he said, he saw about 100 new websites a day related to the pandemic. Now, the figure is 2,000. Their systems have flagged about half of those as likely related to malware, ransomware or phishing.
Its a massive uptick, Mr. Anderson said.
The operator of another Shopify dropshipping site, covid-defender.com, who would identify himself to The Times only as Radwan, said he lived in Denmark and had run Facebook ads for his site. The site sells face masks for $30 to $40, including one marketed for children described as Kid Mask Protection Against Virus and Bacteria With N95 Standards.
He said he believed the suppliers statements that the masks were certified to the standards claimed. It doesnt say by any means that it provides 100 percent protection, he said.
He said he had not heard of shortages of the masks he sold. If I had heard of any shortage anywhere on the planet I would not sell it, he said. Even so, he said, it was up to his customers to vet the products before buying.
They shouldnt trust these stores, and they have to find the proper information themselves, he said.
One expeditious way to accomplish this task is to give epidemiologists access to anonymized data that is being created by the GPS tracking on our smartphones. If companies can use this data to market services to you, shouldnt health agencies use it to track the spread of this disease?
One example of how smartphone data could be taken another step forward comes from Singapore, which has been one of the most successful countries in fighting the coronavirus, deploying numerous tools including widespread testing. Lately authorities there have added a new tool to their arsenal. As reported by The Financial Times, the government started TraceTogether, an app that uses Bluetooth technology to record distance between users as well as the duration of their encounters. People consent to give the health ministry the information, which is encrypted and deleted after 21 days. The department can then contact users in case of probable contact with an infected individual.
Note that this is a service people opt into. Both of us would gladly sign up. We dont think anyone should be forced to use it, but we do think it should be legal.
Many countries have adopted data privacy regulations, some of which can prevent the creation of tools that use data to help fight the pandemic. Of course, like all of our other suggestions, we recommend this only as a temporary change, although similar measures might be necessary in another health crisis.
Although we have tried to educate ourselves about the issues raised here, we are not experts in medicine or health care, so our suggestions might not be the best ones. The people on the front lines are better suited to identify the factors inhibiting their progress.
It is standard practice in the federal government (and some state governments) to request comments before new regulations are issued. This ensures that regulators receive proper feedback before laws are written.
Ideally, governments would do the opposite now: open up sites to request comments not on new regulations, but on existing ones that are limiting our ability to fight the virus. Let people on the front lines report the regulations that are hindering them. Of course, everyone is busy right now, so to help we have set up a website where anyone with a possibly useful idea can make suggestions for ways to eliminate the red tape that is making it harder for medical workers to do their jobs. We hope readers will submit their ideas and add comments on the ideas of others.
Some of our ideas may seem radical, but crises require new ways of thinking.
Sendhil Mullainathan is a professor of behavioral and computational science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Follow him on Twitter: @m_sendhil.
Richard H. Thaler, a professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, won the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Follow him on Twitter: @R_Thaler.
How many cases of COVID-19 are there in Texas? It depends who you ask.
On Tuesday, the answers varied wildly.
Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference that 715 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus so far. At the same time, the Texas health services department which reports the states official count every day showed only 410 people. (Later in the evening, the number was revised to match Abbotts statements.)
Johns Hopkins University, which is tallying cases worldwide, reported 857 cases in Texas as Abbott gave his remarks. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions count tallied 507 cases in Texas in the morning but dropped the number to 352 by the afternoon.
Depending on which number you use, Texas is ranked either 10th in the nation for most cases or 21st.
The discrepancies have only been worse at the county level. Texas health officials reported 34 cases in Dallas County on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the county reported 169 cases among its residents. (The state updated the Dallas cases to 131 on Tuesday evening.)
Gov. Greg Abbott, in public addresses Tuesday and this weekend, had to reconcile that the states numbers were dramatically lower than those in other reports. In his update, he used numbers reported by the state and offered up a count from Johns Hopkins.
The Texas Department of State Health Services acknowledged the massive reporting discrepancies to The Texas Tribune this week and launched a new reporting system Tuesday evening that officials believe will close some of the gap. The updated page came with a note that more than 300 previously unaccounted-for cases were now being reflected in state data.
But public health experts have said that even the most generous accounting of positive cases in the state is a dramatic undercount given the rampant evidence of community spread, combined with the state health departments traditionally lengthy reporting process and limited testing capacity.
Experts have also emphasized the importance of ramping up testing in Texas and across the country, warning about the dangers of decision-making based on inconsistent numbers and incomplete data.
Abbott has signaled to Texans that the case numbers are informing some decisions. This weekend, he stopped short of calling for a statewide lockdown over the coronavirus, saying there are still many counties in Texas without any cases. As he made those statements Sunday, some counties were collectively reporting hundreds of cases that the state was not including in its official count.
I am governor of 254 counties in the state of Texas, Abbott said at a press conference Sunday. What may be right for places like the large, urban areas may not be right at this particular point in time for the counties that he said have no cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Cases reported by some rural counties show that its not just large, urban areas being hit by the virus. In small-town East Texas, local health authorities have reported one case apiece in Cass, Van Zandt and Morris counties as of Tuesday. The state reported none until Tuesday evening, when DSHS released its new reporting system.
One reason for the previous discrepancies between state and county numbers was that different methodologies were being used.
Until Tuesday evening, the state tracked cases by county of residence. This meant that if a University of Texas student who lived in Houston contracted the new coronavirus and was tested and treated in Austin, the tally appeared as a positive case in Harris County.
Many counties, on the other hand, have been reporting anyone who tested positive in their jurisdictions. DSHSs new method will use tallies directly from counties.
DSHS spokesperson Chris Van Deusen told The Texas Tribune that the new state reporting system will better reflect what local jurisdictions are reflecting and have a complete picture as possible.
In order to make sure were providing the most up-to-date information possible, were shifting to using the COVID-19 case counts that local jurisdictions are reporting publicly, Van Deusen said. Previously, we were relying on the official case forms we receive from local health departments and our regional offices. But those come in later than the public updates, so it created confusion about the numbers.
Other reasons for discrepancies center around who gets counted. Texas officials have made conflicting statements about whether the states count included so-called presumptive positive tests which are cases not confirmed by the CDC. The state also doesnt generally count coronavirus patients housed at the federal quarantine site in San Antonio.
Now that DSHS is including all cases reported publicly by local health departments, the agency says lingering discrepancies are possibly the result of other sources counting some cases more than once.
Dennis Perrotta, a former Texas state epidemiologist, said Texans should look to their local health authorities for the best data.
First of all, always, a local health department is the place where they know more about whats going on in their community, Perrotta said, adding that he was not surprised by the disparities between local and state numbers because of the complex reporting process.
With community spread of the virus happening in several Texas counties, more people who have contracted the virus likely havent been tested. And Texas is lagging behind other large states in testing capacity. According to a Washington Post report, New York has processed seven times as many tests as Texas, although Texas has over 9 million more residents.
Some experts say the virus has spread past the point when testing would have made a difference; sick people need to go to the hospital, and people not showing symptoms need to stay home.
While larger, urban counties may have the testing resources to understand the scope of the virus in their areas, small communities are not there yet, Perrotta said.
Theres still pressure on parts of Texas to try to understand whats going on in their community so they know whether or not they should just continue to work on identifying cases and tracking down their contacts or consider everybody as having it, Perrotta said. Some places are ready to move forward and not worry about testing, but others are trying to make sure their efforts match the threat.
Disclosure: The University of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Coronavirus testing capacity has begun to expand, with drive-through testing starting up in many places. But experts warn we still need to vastly expand testing to control the outbreak. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption
Coronavirus testing capacity has begun to expand, with drive-through testing starting up in many places. But experts warn we still need to vastly expand testing to control the outbreak.
Stay inside, don't meet with friends, don't go to work these are the messages coming from public health officials at every level of government. But increasingly, experts say they believe those stark warnings must be augmented with another message:
If you think you might be sick, even a little sick, get tested for coronavirus.
"Everyone staying home is just a very blunt measure. That's what you say when you've got really nothing else," says Emily Gurley, an associate scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Being able to test folks is really the linchpin in getting beyond what we're doing now."
Testing "is absolutely essential to control the epidemic," agrees Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a co-discoverer of HIV. Gallo says that testing was a major factor in bringing the AIDS epidemic under control, and it will be needed here as well: "You make it as cheap as you can and you make it as simple as you can," he says.
Currently, the federal government's official position is that the vast majority of Americans shouldn't even bother trying to get tested. "If you don't have symptoms, you don't need a test," Vice President Pence told reporters during a White House briefing on Sunday.
Pence's statement came on the same day that Sen. Rand Paul tested positive for the coronavirus, despite having no symptoms. And a growing body of research suggests that Paul is hardly alone asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people are likely a key reason coronavirus continues to spread relentlessly across the globe.
Even when people become sick, the federal government only recommends testing in limited circumstances. According to official CDC guidance, testing should be prioritized to those admitted to hospitals, health care workers and those at risk for complications from the disease. Everyone else should be prepared to ride out their illness, COVID-19 or otherwise, at home.
Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, says he believes that the Trump administration has some reason to set those guidelines. Early missteps created a huge shortage of tests in the U.S. "They're dealing with a reality, which is we have far fewer tests than we need right now," he says.
In addition to the lack of tests themselves, there are also reported shortages in basic equipment such as personal protective gear and swabs. Given all that, Jha agrees that health care workers and the very ill should be getting tested most often.
But Jha and other experts say as soon as we can, we need to take the following measures:
Massively expand testing
As soon as possible, the criteria for who gets tested will need to be broadened, he says. First it should be extended to close contacts of the very ill, so that they can be quarantined and monitored. Then the tests should be given to mildly ill people to see whether they have the disease. And finally, a segment of the population should be tested at random, to look for asymptomatic spreaders. "That's the priority list, I think most experts agree," he says.
Getting there could require around 150,000 tests a day, he says. The total number of Americans tested since the crisis began in February is only 250,000, according to Pence on Sunday. Over the past week commercial labs have gone from completing around 8,000 to around 50,000 tests per day, according to data from the American Clinical Laboratory Association. That data does not include state public health departments and other institutions such as universities.
Isolate the sick and trace their contacts
Testing will be just the first step on the road to recovery, Gurley says. In South Korea, wide testing has been accompanied by isolating people who are infected and sending all of their contacts into 14-day self-quarantine. "It's that self-quarantine that will take care of people transmitting before they become ill," she says.
The South Korean effort has seen testing sites and quarantine centers spring up across the country. It has required the mobilization of industry, government and health care workers at every level. But it seems to have worked. For now, the small country has managed to hold the virus at bay and keep down deaths from the disease.
The U.S., with its large population and decentralized government, will require a far greater effort, but it's not impossible, says Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. "They were doing [tens of thousands] a day in South Korea," he says. "So why the hell can't we do 10 times that?"
Gradually loosen shelter in place
Shaman says that there is little alternative than to build up testing. The shelter-in-place orders can't go on forever. "There are enormous economic, psychological and emotional costs associated with everybody becoming a hermit in a cave," he says. And when they're lifted, the virus could surge back again, as it appears to be doing in Hong Kong, which was initially successful in stopping its spread.
The lack of testing is already having consequences. The disease is now spreading exponentially, and Shaman warns that New York City and other American municipalities will likely be slammed in the coming weeks as an influx of sick patients flood ERs and ICUs.
"Things are definitely going to get worse before they get better," Gurley agrees. But she adds, "the sooner that we can get testing up and running, the better off we're going to be."
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Jackson Browne has tested positive for coronavirus. The 71-year-old musician told Rolling Stone that he had mild symptoms including a small cough and a temperature and was recuperating at home in Los Angeles.
I feel lucky that Im not really badly affected, he said. I guess Ive got a really strong immune system. Theres so much we dont know.
He told the magazine that he assumed he had contracted the virus while in New York for the Love Rocks NYC benefit earlier this month. He said he now regretted making the trip.
There was already a question of being careful and saying, Ill bump elbows and not shake hands and wont hug anybody. I wont behave like that at this show. But still, youre in close quarters and youre breathing the same air. They are swabbing the mics, but somebody in the crew has it. For all I know, he got it from me. I could have got it from the crew member that has it or he could have got it from me. I dont know. I travelled on an airplane to get there.
Browne counselled young people to take the virus seriously. So many people that have it arent going to be tested, he said. They dont have symptoms, but they might have it and might be able to pass it on. Thats what younger readers need to understand: They need to take part in the global response to stop the spread. That means not going anywhere, not getting into contact with anybody, not seeing anybody.
Browne said he had been in quarantine for 10 days and was passing the time by calling friends, listening to music and reading the news. He said it was important for people with the virus to share their experiences.
I dont think my case is that important, but it might be helpful to know that some people dont get this really bad. The idea that we can contribute to the overall herd immunity. You get over this as quickly as you can and be available to help others.
Brownes last solo album was 2014s Standing in the Breach. Earlier this year, he released Let the Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol 1, an all-star charity album featuring musicians including Jenny Lewis, Jonathan Wilson, Malian musician Habib Koit and Spanish flamenco guitarist Ral Rodrguez.
Browne is due to tour the US with James Taylor in May: the dates are still scheduled to go ahead, but are subject to change.
Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warns of 'catastrophic scenes' in New York. USA TODAY
The United States'response to the COVID-19 pandemic is haphazard, uncoordinated and sorely missing the guidance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that agency's former director told USA TODAY on Tuesday.
And the "extraordinary" absence of the nation's lead public health agency at the forefront of the coronavirus fightmakesTom Frieden feel "less safe."
Now president of the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives, Frieden advises other nations on how toorganize against epidemics. He said global best practice is to designateone incident manager reporting to ahealth department official who then communicates to the head of state.
Same virus, different approach:These 5 maps show how states differ on protecting Americans against coronavirus
That's not how it's working in the U.S.
Weve heard that FEMAs in charge. Weve heard that the vice presidents in charge. Weve heard that (U.S. Ambassador-at-Large) Dr. (Deborah) Birx is the coordinator. Weve heard that (Health and Human Services Secretary Alex)Azar is in charge of the task force. Whos on first here? Frieden told USA TODAYs Editorial Board on a video call.
Former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden(Photo: Jasper Colt)
The one agency that definitely isnt in charge is the CDC, which Frieden directed from 2009 to 2017.
It's a stark reversal fromthe past, when the CDC not only took the lead in the U.S. but globally against the threat of infectious disease. From the SARS epidemic in 2002, to the 2009 H1N1 flu, the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and through the 2015Zika virus outbreak, the CDCheld frequent and sometimes daily briefings as the coordination center for the U.S. government and beyond.
This time, however, the agency that has led every major epidemic response in the nation for the past seven decades is just not there, Frieden said. Its 700 professionals specifically focused on infectious and lung disease appear sidelined.
Fighting an epidemic without CDC involved at the decision table and at the podium is like fighting with one hand tied behind your back, he said.
A visual guide: What does the coronavirus do to your body?
In previous outbreaks, the CDC had often daily calls with reporters.This time, the CDC has had multiple news conferences canceled because if the White House is having a press conference, they cant have one, Frieden said. The last one archived on the CDCs media page is from March 9.
Asked about Frieden's comments, the CDC responded that it is still actively engaged in the country's COVID-19 response and working with the entirety of the federal government.
Robert Redfield, the current director of the CDC, is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force buthas rarely appeared in its almost daily video briefings.
In a wide-ranging conversation with the editorial board, Frieden also said testing for the coronavirus is being mismanaged.
The drive to get everyone everywhere tested for COVID-19 is simply wrong from a public health perspective, he said.In areas with many cases, no one other than people who need to be hospitalized for the illness caused by the virus should be tested.
Theres every reason to not get tested, he said. "If youve got mild symptoms, stay home!" Trying to get tested just meansusing up protective equipment, staff time and scarce test kits and might infect others.
Is it alive?A coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world, but what exactly is a virus?
If youre positive, its not going to make any difference. Youre going to be told to stay home unless youre having trouble breathing. Then you need to go to the hospital."
In places with relatively few COVID-19 cases, however, testing makes sense, Frieden said. In these areaspublic health officials can track contacts, call for self-isolation and slow the spread of the disease.
He also disagreed with the focus of the Trump administration's task force on "high-throughput" testing. Quick-turnaround is whats needed, Frieden said.
That may sound like a technical difference but its a big difference, he said.
High-throughput testing requires using centralized labs and can take between a day to four days to get results. Thats useless to front-line medical professionals seeing large numbers of people in emergency rooms, he said. They need to know within an hour whether someone has coronavirus and should be admitted and put into quarantine.
And that's going to be increasingly important if, as Frieden predicted, a big wave of infections comes crashing down on the United States.
The severely ill patients today were infected 10 to 12 days ago. It takes about 10 days to get sick and 5 fivedays to get very sick, he said. There will be an exponential increase in cases."
That worries the 35-year public health veteran. The decentralization of the U.S. health system only works if there is clear guidance from the top, Frieden said.
We can expect innovation and proactive action from states and local areas," he said. "But we really need to have clear guidance and coordination at the federal level."
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Read: How you should get food during the pandemic
The primary concern for shoppers is other people, not food. Though shoppers might worry about infecting themselves by handling the same apple or Cheerios box as someone else, health experts say transmission through food or its wrapping is largely avoidable. Research suggests that the virus can exist on cardboard food packaging for a day, and on plastic for several days, but it becomes less infectious over these periods. My recommendation is just to wash your hands after you handle external packaging, Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, says. High-touch objects such as shopping-cart handles are a bigger concern, but many stores have provided sanitizing wipes for those.
Coughing humans, meanwhile, can be harder to escape. This is a manageable risk for shoppers who can go to the store at odd hours and use the self-checkout. But at a high risk of infection are the cashiers themselves, who stand just a few feet from hundreds of customers a day. They might pick up the virus through food and money the customer touches. And if the customer coughs or sneezes near an employee while in line, the likelihood of transmitting the virus through respiratory droplets is also high, says Brandon Brown, a professor at UC Riverside who has studied infectious diseases.
In this way, the pandemic has put grocery-store stockers and cashiers in an impossible situation. The country cant simply shut down grocery stores. Along with pharmacies, theyre an important lifeline for homebound Americans. But even essential shopping can endanger low-paid workers who are not trained in pandemic preparedness and have little choice but to show up for work.
Read: Exclusive: Amazon confirms first known coronavirus case in an American warehouse
To try to mitigate this threat, workers at various grocery stores have asked for face masks, says Hilary Thesmar of the Food Industry Association, or FMI, a trade group of grocery stores. FMI requested masks for workers from the federal government, she says, but it hasnt been able to procure them, because theres a national shortage and the priority is health-care workers. Marc Perrone, the president of the UFCW, says the union is pushing for the government to consider grocery-store workers on par with first responders, which might give them access to masks and gloves.
Even then, wearing masks and gloves might violate a stores rules. A Trader Joes employee in New York, who requested anonymity, said workers at their store have been told they are not allowed to wear gloves at the registers. They dont want to alter the appearance of normalcy, the worker told me through a Twitter account associated with a Trader Joes workers collective. (A spokesperson for Trader Joes denied this, saying in an email, While the CDC does not recommend use of gloves in a retail setting, our Crew Members may choose to wear them.)
