Phobia and Fomites

I coughed a dozen times in the past 18 hours and I have a runny nose which means I am going to be dead in two weeks.

Nevermind I woke up with itchy eyes and don't have a fever. Nevermind that this is what the world looks like outside my window and the tree pollen count in Seattle today is high. (Who knew the Weather Channel tracks pollen counts? Good to know.) Nevermind that this is still cold and flu season.

Damn you, tree pollen!

I thought of something else that may be spreading COVID-19: smart phones.

Jack taught me the term "fomite" ages ago when I was pregnant with Claire-Adele. We walked past a pediatricians' office next to my OB's office and there were a half dozen kids playing in the waiting room. Jack cringed. 

"That is fomite central," he said. 

"What a fomite?" I asked.

"Things that people touch that pass germs along," he said. "Like all of those toys. A kid with a runny nose touches is and boom, every other kid that touches it get a runny nose."

Yeah. This is what it is like to co-parent with a pediatrician. You learn the whole world is an epic hazard for disease and death. 

I digress. Back to the phone. As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I have been washing my hands like a raccoon with OCD. What I have not been cleaning is my phone, which I touch more than I touch my mouth, nose and eyes combined.

So I worked out Friday morning before work so I don't turn into a potato during my quasi-quarantine. I washed my hands before I went to the health club. I didn't touch the door knob. I scanned my own card. I didn't touch the hand rails to go down the steps. I put my stuff in a locker and then went to the elliptical where I put on my headphones, got out my phone, picked a play list and worked out to the silent televisions screens showing CNN, MSNBC and HULU news which was 100% about COVID-19. The commercials showed people hugging and high-fiving and shaking hands and I am thinking, "What the fuck? They are all gonna die." When I finished, I picked up my phone, sprayed down the machine and got my purse and coat out of my locker. I wiped down the lock and inside of the locker with a wipe. I used hand-sanitizer on my way out. When I got home, I checked my bank and investment balances on my phone, which is another sad story for a different day.

Did I ever clean my phone in this process? No. Theoretically, if I clean my hands all of the time, I should be good, but I use my phone in between. Is this maybe why kids aren't getting COVID at the same rate as adults? I know the people in the nursing home weren't using phones, but maybe this is one way how it spreads.

Maybe?