This will be a funny one to explain to grandkids one day

To be fair this is a good idea underdeveloped countries as canned drinks in storage are usually contaminated externally with rat shit.

This is true of warehouses everywhere, not just ones in underdeveloped countries. Developed countries just usually have a higher turnover and distribution closer to production sources, so they sit in storage for less time.
Do you drink the soda by pouring it over its outer hide?
You somehow forgot a whole word. How the fuck does that even happen?
- Among many, many other far simpler explanations, it's pretty common for people with ADHD.
- How even notice there's a missing word?

My neighbor died. My 34-year-old coworker died. Those early days of COVID were fucking terrifying.

I tended to get every flu and every diarrhoea even before the pandemic. One day I decided to wash my hands thoroughly after shopping. Then came the pandemic. I am not making this up but I haven't had any sickness for eighth years. No flu, no diarrhoea. I didn't even catch COVID. Just because I started washing my hands a bit more often, around half a dozen times a day.

The eight years since the pandemic really have flown by...
- He didn't say he started with COVID, he started 'and then came the pandemic'.
You never take public transport or interact with kids?
That's because people are generally disgusting. I'd have to guess that if you talked to basically edit: ~~anyone~~ any scientist about the best way to reduce illness of any sort, they'd say "just wash your hands properly."
I drove a 1000k to the french alps just before the covid thing got traction. We do 4 restroom stops. I was always virtually alone washing my hands. The day we returned the ski resorts closed and lockdown was imminent. Now there was a wait to wash your hands. You had people screaming for soap and washing for 5 minutes straight up to their armpits. I just drove past the same restroom stops again. I was alone in washing my hands again. People are stupid.
That should be common sense, you arrive from street let the shoes at the door or outside if you can, wash your hands. You're in the street Shopping or using public transportation, dont touch your face, wash your hands when you arrive somewhere.

"why not just wipe them with disinfectant wipes?"

"oh, you sweet summer child"

Ugh, I bought 100% alcohol by the gallon and made my own 70% disinfectant spray cause it was easier for me to source a full gallon of industrial alcohol than get a package of Clorox wipes.

I almost forgot that shit!

Do I get any credit for never having done this?

It depends... Did you wear a mask at the store? And have you ever taken Horse Dewormer?
- Oh god I forgot about the weirdos and the fucking horse dewormer 🤣
- A tsp of bleach a day keeps the doctor away

Sadly, no it won't. Because we've royally fucked over the planet for ourselves and things like this will only become more common. Not necessarily exactly this picture, but the age of crisis is well upon us and will only get worse from here. Your grandkids will understand because they're in for much worse.

Maybe we've reached the conclusion of the Fermi paradox. Only that WE won't be sending anything out there anymore.

I think I'm going to continue washing apples, cucumbers, things like that.

I was a farmer; you should. Especially potatoes and fruit.
- There's not even any dirt on potatoes. They must pressure wash them, (you also don't eat them raw).
I was doing it before COVID. I don't know who's hands have touched it or where those hands had been prior to touching it. I'm not gonna get fucked up by Typhoid Mary picking her ass and then touching something I plan to eat.
Always wash the dirty dozen!

Strawberries

Spinach

Kale, Collard and Mustard Greens

Peaches

Pears

Nectarines

Apples

Grapes

Bell and Hot Peppers

Cherries

Blueberries

Green Beans
- Well that's pesticides. My list is related to warehouse gunk, rats, people coughing on them, etc.
  
  *PSA: to get rid of pesticides soak in baking soda bath. They break down.
You didn't wash fruits and vegetables until Covid came?
- When I got home from the store and in soap and water? No. It was a rinse off with water when you ate it.

I have no idea what's going on in this photo.

Washing groceries to avoid getting covid
- Which was always overkill because Covid doesn't really transmit by touching contaminated surfaces like the flu does.
- Was that like an American thing? Never heard of it before now.
They're washing the packaging of their groceries to try to avoid covid.
- I never knew that was a thing.
Washing your stuff.
- The picturen is too cropped to know if he's also washing his stuff

Ironic that whoever is washing the Pepsi and Cheetos has a much higher risk of dying from heart disease than COVID.

Is this not a healthy breakfast?

Before covid some groceries (mostly fruits/vegetables) lasted 1 week or a little more. After that sometimes 2 or more, just today I cut a pineapple that it's 3 weeks old. I'm going to keep washing them.

And it's really nice to just open the fridge and just bite the apple w/o needing to wash it (again).

I watched a documentary on DWTV about a similiar phenomena in Germany. There was a specific sort of bread, a cheap one, which stood fresh for two weeks if packed well. During the pandemic it suddenly stood fresh for NINE MONTHS. The finder of that bread was some sort of forensic specialist and because during the pandemic crime pretty much vanished he had too much time and explored that phenomena.

So, did they put more chemicals into the bread to keep it more fresh?

Actually, no. wholemeal bread stays due to the acid produced by the leavening during baking which is a natural process. Actually ALL bread stays in theory fresh "forever".

But. If it gets contaminated with fungus spores then those can slowly break up acids in the bread. Well, the final verdict was: Before the pandemic most bakers were so fucking dirty and contaminated that they pretty much only delivered fungus-contaminated bread. During the pandemic though the bakers were required to sanitize their work space and themselves a lot more thorough. And that made the bread free of fungus.

The forensic specialist has kept another bread for over three years now. It is as fresh as the first day. No chemicals involved, just wrapped airtight into a plastic foil.
- Glad to know we only get fungal bread
- So does that mean sourdough bread lasts longer?
How do you dry things? I've tried pre-washing things before to reduce the friction to cooking, but everything always go bad so much faster because of the extra moisture.
- I bought a few metres of calico, because it's a cheap, close weave natural fibre.Cut it into sheets the size of a tea towel with pinking shears (because I'm too lazy to hem anything)
  
  When I wash produce, I lay it out to air dry on the sheets, and I throw a dry sheet into the tub or container I'm storing the veg in to continue wicking moisture.
  
  If I'm in a rush I'll pat dry and rub dry produce that I can, but mostly it's laying it out to air dry, either on the counter or in the fridge itself before going back and putting the dry veg in a proper container.
  
  I'll occasionally swap out the cotton in a container for a fresh dry sheet if the produce in the fridge is getting soggy. Things like lettuce and spinach for example, I'll give them a fresh dry sheet at least once a week and they'll last 2-3 weeks for me.
  
  I tend to wash everything in a weak dilution of vinegar, in my experience that reduces moulding.
  
  I don't have a salad spinner so when I want to spin something dry, I wash it and then put it in a mesh produce bag, go outside, and spin the bag around like a human windmill.
  
  All the calico sheets just get thrown in the wash with all my actual tea towels and kitchen towels. If they get really gross they can be boiled to sterile clean them, or worse case scenario, composted.
- Yes I do dry them with a cloth towel, some things that trap moisture can't be washed like onions. Bananas for example usually skip them, if they have a small scratch/cut they tend to rot from the filtration tho.
You wash your pineapples with soap and water?
- you sound like you're not even washing coconuts
- Reading comprehension wasn't that strong in your elementary school isn't it?

The dark days of instacarting groceries and having everything smell like the inside of a smokers car

Yeah, this is disturbing, like what the fuck are you doing??!!

Washing off the 'vid.
- Huh.
  
  That doesn't strike me as a likely vector, given that most viruses don't survive on hard surfaces very long. If you're going to that kind of extreme, you would really need to be setting up an airlock on your house so that you could change and shower before going inside. For people that worked in hospitals with covid-19 patients, where they had very high exposures, that was a real thing that helped reduce spread. But the average person? It's just not a big enough risk.
  
  FWIW, I had covid-19 once, and it was after I'd gotten my vaccination and booster (very mild case), and that was with pretty basic precautions like washing my hands, not going to indoor gatherings, and wearing a respirator with P-100 filter cartridges whenever I was in public.
Sanitizing groceries to prevent covid.

I much prefer just setting everything on fire

Everyone who did this is fucking stupid, respiratory illness spreads in coughs and sneezes, (aerosolized fluids), not on surfaces.

To be fair, we had zero knowledge of what would or wouldn't spread the virus around march/april 2020

Very weird not to use dishwashing gloves for that. It's like taking a photo of yourself as an example of brushing your teeth and forgetting to use toothpaste. It's just so strange that it's hard to imagine it wasn't done on purpose.

Curious as to what difference gloves would make in this specific situation according to you? You're washing everything with soap to "disinfect" it. Your bare hands will also be full of soap. Wouldn't they also get disinfected? What am I missing?
- Washing up gloves are there to protect your hands from the heat of the water. I do find it strange to say it's like brushing your teeth without toothpaste though.
Gloves were one of those things that were very hard to find for a while (I remember seeing boxes of gloves on Amazon for $60 or something like that).