A lot of things have suddenly become a risk to our health that never really were previously — shaking hands, public transit, even just standing within 6 feet of another person. As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to reevaluate all the mundane things whose safety we never questioned before.
You might be at home now to obey the mandates to self-isolate to help curb the rapidly increasing infections of COVID-19. If so, there are some things that we must do regardless of any pandemic, like eating. While delivery orders might be the safest option to keep your quarantine unbroken, eating delivery every day for the unforeseen duration of the pandemic isn’t sustainable. If you’re wondering whether you can just break quarantine long enough to grab groceries without putting yourself and house members at risk, you’re not alone in that question. Here’s the answer to whether grocery shopping during a pandemic is safe.
Long story short — not really. This question varies based on whose risk levels we’re considering. If it’s your own risk, consider whether you make up the most impacted demographic for COVID-19 — elderly, immunocompromised, male, asthmatic, obese, or diabetic. These factors have all shown significantly more susceptibility to the virus. If you’re not in either of these categories, congratulations, you’ll likely be fine while grabbing groceries.
That’s not the whole story, however. In a pandemic, we must consider the risk to all people, not just ourselves. With COVID-19, it’s been found that many otherwise healthy people can still carry and transmit the virus without ever experiencing a symptom. Do you live with an at-risk person, or care for one? The risk of transmitting the virus is dangerously high, and that makes grocery shopping during a pandemic even more dangerous.
The last factor to consider during a pandemic for whether it’s safe to grocery shop is a simple thought experiment; if everyone believed it was safe to go grocery shopping and did so, what would happen? A good rule of thumb when making decisions that might have an ethical impact is whether that action magnified would yield a positive or negative outcome. When you’re dealing with a pandemic, everyone acting cohesively and carefully is vital. Here, it’s best to spend the extra money on grocery delivery instead of in-person shopping.
