Q&A of the Day – Are grocery stores safe from the coronavirus?
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Question of the day: If this virus is super contagious and we absolutely can’t be out and be responsible at our jobs, then please explain why grocery store workers are mostly still healthy? Cashiers interact with hundreds and thousands in a day, I don’t at my job.
Bottom Line: To be clear, it’s not my intention or objective to defend specific decisions that have been made by governments. As always, such as with yesterday’s Q&A questioning the efficacy of masks, I establish the facts and go where they take us. I have my own questions and concerns regarding the safety of grocery stores, but it’s not for the purpose of attempting to downplay the severity of the coronavirus threat - which seems to be where you’re coming from with the question. As we know, essential businesses have been allowed to operate, provided additional safety measures – including social distancing and more recently the use of masks in South Florida – are adhered to. It’s hard to argue any business being more essential than one which allows people to obtain food. For that reason, if the goal is to strike a balance of limiting the spread of the virus with the needs of society, I understand the reason grocery stores have remained open. And it’s not as though they haven’t taken additional steps to create a safer shopping experience. Grocery stores have done the following in Florida:
- Added physical barriers between employees and customers where interactions occur
- Created senior only shopping hours
- Added touchless payment systems
- Limiting the number of customers allowed to enter at a time
- One-way shopping aisles
- Expanded delivery options
Not all stores have done all of these, though all stores have enacted at least some of them. But here’s the thing. Grocery store employees have become sick and many have died due to their work during the spread of the virus in the United States. As of Sunday, more than 2,000 grocery store employees are known to have contracted the virus and at least 41 have died thus far. Therein lies the point. Operating essential businesses isn’t and hasn’t been without risk – even when extra precautions have been taken. On a personal note, I think a grocery store might be the least safe place in society at any given time right now. Prior to the pandemic I’d never tried grocery delivery. We’ve done it three times over the past month (it’s been over three weeks since we went into any store) and it’s been a great experience. I’d strongly encourage anyone to do so over going into a grocery store until the threat of the coronavirus passes. For that matter – so does Governor DeSantis. He’s gone as far as receiving a federal waiver for SNAP recipients to be able to use the program to purchase groceries online.
I understand the frustration of many who want to get back to work, clearly President Trump does as well. Getting back to work wouldn’t be worth it if it makes you ill with something that’s killed 21% of all diagnosed closed cases to date. It’s clear that what we’ve been doing nationally and especially across Florida has been effective in slowing the spread of the virus. Again, it’s not complicated. If the virus most commonly spreads by interpersonal contact,and we’re doing what we can to avoid that contact, we’ll get through this pandemic quicker and healthier.