Because of covid19, is it safe that our cleaning help work at our home?

March 22, 2020 6:28 AM

We are 2 people in good health in our late sixties. Our help comes every two weeks. I’m conflicted if it’s safe for us for her to come. Is it an absolute no or is there a way to make it work?
posted by Tziv to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Best answer: Think of it this way: For them, it is safe – assuming you are sheltering in place an have nobody else coming to your house, your house is a safe zone and they should have no worries about coming in and working there. For for you, it is not safe — because you have no idea where they've been and who they've been in contact with. And there's not an easy way to make it work, even if they where masks and gloves. My suggestion is: do your own cleaning for a while and pay them anyway.
posted by beagle at 6:42 AM on March 22, 2020 [29 favorites]

Best answer: No. Nope. Nada. Nyet.
What ever makes you think that it may be safe?
posted by Sophont at 6:42 AM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: As beagle says, please continue paying them if you are able.
posted by stray at 7:06 AM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

Best answer: We asked ours to stay away and we are in our 30s. Sent them the usual check in the mail, asked them to stay home.
posted by po822000 at 7:41 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I’ve suspended mine (with pay, but I live somewhere cheap so I can afford it).
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:49 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: THey are exposing you to everyone they have been exposed to. So, no, it's not safe. Especially if their job also includes cleaning many other peoples' houses, or they are otherwise unable to or unwilling to self-isolate.

It interests me that there are so many posts/questions online on the order of "I see we're all supposed to self-isolate but does this really mean ME?" Yes, yes it does. Every single person you add to your immediate contact circle increases your risk. You are exposed to everyone they are exposed to. If you can reduce your risk, you should.

And yes, keep paying them if you're able. You can work it out later.
posted by Miko at 8:38 AM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you everyone. You all validated my concerns and I appreciate your direct words. I was in touch with her and it was interesting that she was a step ahead of me. She had stopped going to clients to protect herself and others.
posted by Tziv at 8:46 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

It's a numbers game. Any one individual act of travel or other form of social interaction is unlikely to result in infection. But in the aggregate, experience and research show that the more social interaction, the more infection.
posted by theora55 at 9:18 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

It interests me that there are so many posts/questions online on the order of "I see we're all supposed to self-isolate but does this really mean ME?"

I feel this is unfair to the poster as this and many other questions I’ve read boil down to "Is there a way to do this that doesn’t break quarantine?" I’m guilty of this myself — near the first thing I did was ask a doctor friend if my dog could still play with other dogs. She gave me some guidelines, but the basic answer was yes. I’m glad I asked.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:59 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer:

Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic trajectory isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place. The same underlying fundamentals of disease transmission apply, and the result is that the community is left with all of the social and economic disruption but very little public health benefit. You should perceive your entire family to function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk, everyone in the unit is at risk. Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming speed. If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son’s girlfriend’s mother shook hands with. This sounds silly, it’s not. This is not a joke or a hypothetical. We as epidemiologists see it borne out in the data time and time again and no one listens. Conversely, any break in that chain breaks disease transmission along that chain.

posted by Miko at 10:06 AM on March 25, 2020