Attorney Marc Lopez recently spoke to registered nurse Erin Dinn about the latest in coronavirus news. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Marc Lopez
I’m with my good friend, nurse Erin Dinn. Hi, Erin. How are you?
Erin Dinn
I’m good. How are you doing?
Marc Lopez
Not bad. So we first did a video back on March 19, and we published it, and on March 23, Governor Holcomb did his Indiana stay-at-home order. Now he just extended it for two more weeks. So I thought it’d be a great time to catch back up with Nurse Dinn. What has changed in the two weeks since we met?
Erin Dinn
A lot, actually—a lot has changed. So I looked over our video—I watched it earlier, just like you prepare for things that need updated. But that’s one of the biggest things, is the stay-at-home order. We’ve talked about before—washing your hands is so important—that’s still very important. But our frontline of defense here and our priority is really staying at home at this point.
And so there have been some changes with the CDC, as well. One thing that we had talked about was mask use, and I want to touch again on that as far as—do we want to use the masks, or do we not? Why and what has changed with the CDC’s recommendations on that, as well?
But staying at home really—if you don’t live with the person, don’t go to see them. That’s the rule of thumb there.
Marc Lopez
Okay, so a bunch of information was packed into that sentence. What’s the biggest thing? What’s the deal with masks? Give us the lowdown on that.
Erin Dinn
So we talked about that before. We talked about—don’t wear a mask, because it doesn’t help. Before the city shut down, people were spending 6-to-10 hours a day outside, right? So you’re going to restaurants and doing those things and trying to social distance in the sense of staying six feet away from people. That period of time is way outside of how long you should be wearing a mask. Now, with everything shut down—you’re really only spending one-to-two hours outside of the home—the CDC is recommending that you wear a mask. It’s really important. That time period—one-to-two hours—is well within the reasonable time that a mask is effective.
So they have the disposable ones, and there are cloth ones that you can make at home. It’s very important that you’re using those correctly. The disposable paper ones—when you’re done with it, don’t reuse it. Throw it away. The fabric ones I think are really nice, because you can wash those, but just make sure that you’re washing them in between use.
Marc Lopez
So with a disposable mask—if you go out, even for like, 15 minutes, and you come back—just toss those out?
Erin Dinn
Yeah, I just throw it away. With the fabric masks—if you can make it so you have two or three of them, and you go out to the grocery store and come back—just throw it right into the laundry. You can wash it in hot water, and my washing machine has a sanitize setting. So if you have one of those, that’s great. But just water and laundry detergent will do the trick.
Marc Lopez
And the mask—is it to protect people from yourself, because you’re possibly infected? Or is it to prevent spreading? What has changed so dramatically in these past two weeks regarding the mask? I’m just super curious about that.
Erin Dinn
The biggest reason why we’ve gone from don’t wear one to yes, wear one is the time frame. Because the amount of time now that you’re going to be spending outside is one-to-two hours, whereas before—when we weren’t social distancing and we weren’t having this order to stay at home—people were outside for much longer than a mask could be effective. That’s really the big change. You’re helping prevent the spread, because you can be asymptomatic and not know that you’re carrying it, and you don’t want to give it to other people or contract it from someone else.
Marc Lopez
Erin, what about gloves? Should we be going out wearing gloves when we go shopping? What’s the deal with that?
Erin Dinn
Gloves are like everything that you use—even a vehicle, right? You want to use it properly, or else it’s not effective. So the proper way to use gloves is—you want to wash or sanitize your hands, then put the gloves on, and then wash or sanitize your hands and change those gloves in between every task.
So what I’ve seen in my experience going to the grocery store—somebody is wearing a pair of gloves, and they grab their produce, they touch their face, they grab their phone, they’re touching the cart, and they’re wearing that same pair of gloves throughout their entire time at the grocery store. You’re essentially just spreading germs from one place to another—to yourself, to your phone, to everything.
So what I would recommend is, it’s really impractical to wear gloves and use them practically in the appropriate way at a grocery store. So if you take some hand sanitizer with you, and in between those touches, just go ahead and sanitize your hands, and then you’ll be fine.
Marc Lopez
Okay, that’s perfect. And then you’re a nurse. You’re actually out there. You’re on the front lines—what should the person watching this be doing?
Erin Dinn
The biggest thing—like I was saying before—our frontline is don’t leave the house. If you can avoid it, don’t leave the house. Like I said before—if you don’t live with that person, don’t go visit them. It really is unfortunate that kids aren’t being able to see their grandparents, and they can’t go to the park. Even though you think the parks are outside—you’re touching that equipment, you’re doing those things that can transmit germs. Going to a barbecue with your neighbors, and you have five people there, and you think, Well, it’s under 10 people—we still don’t want to do that, because every time you come in contact with somebody else, you’re putting yourself and that other person at risk for getting sick.
Marc Lopez
So stay home. That’s the big thing—am I right?
Erin Dinn
Yeah. So things that you can do—obviously, anything inside your home. You can clean, you can look online and find some new recipes—you can do that stuff, try some new things. But it’s fine to go outside and do some yard work and have the kids play outside and go for a run and do those kinds of things. So it’s not necessarily that you can’t go outside of your front door, but really, if you are going outside—avoiding other people and maintaining that six feet and not going to a place that’s going to be crowded. Don’t go to the park where there might be other people or you’re touching other equipment. If you can avoid those kinds of things at all costs, then—basically at this point—that’s best.
