What are COVID safety considerations for taking delivery of a car?

December 9, 2021 12:46 PM

A car will be delivered to me tomorrow. The person doing the delivery will be driving in the car for about 4 hours. What should I do before I drive the car to protect from COVID exposure?

Unfortunately, I do not expect the delivery person to be masked during the drive due to my state’s lax COVID protocols and anti-mask sentiment. Household health situation: I live with my parents and we have all had 3 Pfizer shots. My father has heart disease and is overweight. My mom has asthma. Both of them are over 60, and my father is over 65.

posted by microscopiclifeform to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

How soon do you need to use the car? Me, personally, I would 1) let the car sit for as long as was convenient, although I wouldn't expect that there would be much benefit after the first couple of days and/or 2) just drive with the windows open. A car with its windows open is nearly the same as being outside.

Wipe down the parts of the car you touch (steering wheel, shifter, radio buttons) with an appropriate cleanser if you want to be extra careful but that's probably more likely to protect you from other diseases than from COVID, which is almost all airborne transmission.
posted by mskyle at 12:55 PM on December 9, 2021

Rolling down the windows and running the vent fans for a few minutes is probably sufficient. If you want to wipe down the steering wheel with an antiseptic wipe that could be a good idea, too. I wouldn't do anything beyond that. Surface transmission isn't really a thing with Covid-19. All the "deep cleaning" going on towards the beginning of the pandemic has been largely shown to be unnecessary.

Nature article on the subject.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:56 PM on December 9, 2021

When I needed to borrow a car, I wore a mask and opened all the car doors, then hung out for ten minutes to let the air change. I then started the car, opened all the windows and drove on my way, still masked. By the time I got to my destination, I felt pretty confident that the car air was safe. The first time I borrowed a car during the pandemic I wiped everything down with bleach wipes but by the second time I felt that fomite transmission had been basically disproved for covid and did not bother.
posted by Frowner at 1:14 PM on December 9, 2021

Here's a tool that lets you calculate how long Covid aerosols stay around. Looks like you can probably just let the car sit for an hour and you'll be fine. Opening the doors and windows will get it ventilated even faster. Surface transmission isn't a thing with Covid, but there's no harm in sanitizing the surfaces you touch.

I'm a member of several carsharing services, which means lots of other people drive the cars I drive. When I book a car, I try to let it sit unused for 15-20 minutes before getting in if possible, drive with the windows down, and sanitize my hands after I leave the vehicle. I used to be pretty paranoid about using these cars, but I think it's low-risk compared to anything else people do outside their own homes. If you're not actually sitting in the vehicle with the delivery person, I think catching Covid in a scenario like this would be pretty unusual.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 1:57 PM on December 9, 2021