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Although the CDC does not advise wearing gloves as a routine measure, many individuals still prefer to use disposable gloves during activities like shopping for groceries. If you decide to wear gloves, it’s crucial to use them properly to avoid unintended risks that could outweigh their benefits.
Understanding the Role of Gloves
The coronavirus doesn’t infect you through your skin; it enters your body through mucous membranes, such as those in your eyes, nose, or mouth. This is why handwashing is essential: it removes the virus from your hands before you can accidentally transfer it to your face.
The purpose of wearing gloves isn’t to shield your skin from the virus but to contain the virus on the gloves' exterior. This allows you to remove the gloves and have relatively clean hands afterward. As microbiologist Simon Clarke explains in The Conversation, neglecting to change gloves when necessary is akin to skipping handwashing.
To ensure maximum safety, it’s recommended to wash your hands both before and after using gloves. This step helps prevent contamination of the gloves or your hands.
Staying mindful of what you touch remains essential
Whether you’re wearing gloves or not, touching a doorknob and then your face could transfer the virus directly to your face.
A common risk of wearing gloves is the false sense of security they provide. People often touch both clean and contaminated surfaces with the same pair of gloves. For instance, if someone handles money with gloves and then prepares food without changing them, it defeats the purpose of wearing gloves entirely. This is precisely the behavior to avoid.
If you’re wearing gloves while shopping, it’s crucial to take them off before handling your phone or wallet. Alternatively, if you touch these items with gloves on, ensure you sanitize them afterward.
Learn the correct way to remove gloves
If the outer surface of a glove is contaminated, avoid touching your clean hand with it during removal. Proper technique is essential to prevent cross-contamination.
Numerous videos demonstrate the right method, but this one stands out because it uses sticky barbecue sauce to illustrate the concept. Imagine everything is coated in barbecue sauce to maintain separation between clean and dirty surfaces. Would you touch your face or phone with a sauce-covered hand? Probably not.
Understand the potential drawbacks of wearing gloves
Like everything, wearing gloves has its advantages and disadvantages. A significant consideration is that gloves are essential PPE (personal protective equipment) for healthcare professionals. Just as we reserve medical-grade masks for experts, it’s wise to do the same with gloves.
It’s also important to recognize that others wearing gloves may not be as informed about proper usage. You can’t be certain what surfaces their gloves have touched.
Gloves degrade with repeated use, increasing the risk of tearing. Additionally, contamination between uses is a concern, as removing gloves often turns them inside out. If you’re considering washing or sanitizing gloves while wearing them, consult the manufacturer’s guidelines, as some materials may deteriorate when exposed to certain chemicals.
When wearing both gloves and a mask, always remove the gloves first and wash your hands before taking off the mask. This prevents contaminated hands from touching your face or hair.
Lastly, ensure safe disposal of used gloves. Always throw them in the trash, not elsewhere.
