Why wearing gloves at grocery store is not necessarily a good idea: doctor
19 March 2020, Lower Saxony, Hanover: A woman with rubber gloves is shopping in an EDEKA market. Measures to contain the coronavirus massively affect public life in Lower Saxony. Many companies send their employees to the home office. Photo: Peter St
Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel said on Tuesday that he prefers constant hand sanitization and washing over wearing gloves for safety purposes during the coronavirus outbreak.
“Gloves accumulate germs, gloves accumulate viruses,” Siegel told “Fox & Friends," responding to a viewer's question about whether wearing gloves at the grocery store is necessary.
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“You’re going to not even realize when you touch something then you have it on the gloves, then you transfer it to your face, then you can get infected," he explained.
Siegel said that gloves are not necessarily the right answer.
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“You can’t change them enough to make a difference so I vote 'no' on that one. Yes, on the continued hand-washing.”
He added that if you do wear gloves, make sure you take them off without touching the outside with your bare hands.
The U.S. hit a grim milestone on Monday after health officials announced the 3,000th coronavirus-related death in the country, with about 900 from New York City alone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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New York is currently the U.S. epicenter of the virus and has over 67,000 cases. Over a third of all deaths in the country have occurred in the state.
USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms, arrived in New York harbor earlier in the day. The floating hospital could be ready to take in patients as soon as Tuesday amid a growing strain on healthcare workers in the city.
Siegel said fresh produce should be washed even more thoroughly once it's in your house. He also cautioned that the virus can live on frozen and refrigerated food containers even more effectively than on produce.
He advised people to make sure to wash their hands after touching the products.