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State says you can bring your own pen to the polling place tomorrow if you're worried about germs
By adamg on Mon, 03/02/2020 - 12:25pm
WBZ interviews Secretary of State Bill Galvin, who says you can bring your own pen with which to vote tomorrow if you're worried about coronavirus (since nobody seems to care that there have been thousands more flu cases in the state so far). Just don't bring red - the scanners can't read that color.
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Comments
Using your own pen a good idea during flu season, too
Or just keep your gloves on while you use the pen they provide. That's what I do as much as possible in the winter.
Gloves
Do gloves not carry the virus as well as hands? That's why I laugh when I see food handlers with latex gloves on. Big deal. You don't know where those gloves have been.
Different problem
Cross-contamination in food by someone who wears gloves and handles food improperly is a different problem than protecting yourself by wearing gloves.
Gloves absolutely do not help
So you are wearing gloves and handle a pen with germs You later raise your gloved hand to your face for whatever reason. The germs are on the glove and get to your face. Same as the naked hand. Masks don't help either, by the way. But try telling that to the hysteric masses.
Who said anything...
...about raising your gloved hand to your face? What's wrong with you?
It's common
People often do it without even knowing it. Perhaps an itch, or brushing away something, or, yes, covering one's mouth while coughing or sneezing. Many people still do that by sheer force of habit rather than sneezing into one's arm or whatever the correct way is.
Link
The link you posted leads to a tweet by the Cohasset Police Department.
Link fixed
Sorry about that!
c'mon
yes, the flu is widespread and is dangerous to vulnerable people, but perpetuating the false equivalence between the flu and covid-19 is pretty weak.
covid-19 is far more transmissible and magnitudes more lethal than the flu we're seeing this season. having heightened sensitivity to something that is killing patients at 20x the rate of the flu is not a bad thing.
also we have a vaccine for
also we have a vaccine for the flu. I haven't worried about the flu this season because I got my shot in the fall - even though people in my household caught it at various points. being a lot more worried about something that you have no way to protect yourself against is perfectly logical
And so did I
But a lot of people, even health-care professionals, don't.
Some people who got the flu shot still got the flu
because it isn't always well-matched to the current year's circulating viruses. The shot was still worth getting.
Just don't bring red - the
Racist voting machines.
Can you bring your own door handle?
To open the door at the polling location?
Sure
It's call a tissue.
Are you really that scared?
Bring a sterile pen or the one you stole from the office?
Farce.
You used to have to use their pen only
because it contained a particular kind of ink needed in order for the machine to read your ballot. You also had to connect two sides of an arrow, rather than filling in an oval.
Not in Boston
Boston went from old fashioned kerchunky lever machines straight to standardized-test fill-in ovals.
With the nice sleeve to cover
With the nice sleeve to cover all but the end of your ballot when you feed it to the scanner, so your individual vote can remain secret - and a single-sided, legal-length ballot for this primary that overhangs the sleeve by several inches, so the helpful hovering poll worker can see exactly who you voted for.
No problem
Just put the ballot in the folder sideways and a bit slanted -- covered up all my bubbled-in votes. ;-)
If Chad is hanging around at your polling site
Avoid him
We will, as always, have
We will, as always, have Kleenex™ and hand sanitizer where I work.