Be Cautious: Hooking Up High Risk Behavior
Face it: we are a hook-up culture. Apps, like Grindr and Scruff, make for the quickest way to meet a stranger and hang out. And now with everyone having so much time on their hands, it may invite their usage, as if we are living through a snow emergency... just without the snow.
Yet the new coronavirus outbreak is not a snow emergency (without the snow), and we are being told to avoid physical contact. So does that mean we need to stop having sex? Over at Vox, journalist Alex Abad-Santos had a conversation with Anna Muldoon, a former science policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and current PhD candidate researching infectious disease and social crises at Arizona State University, "to share her expertise about love and sex in the time of coronavirus."
The summary of the report reads as follows:
"It's okay to go on dates, but be honest about whether you feel sick, and be thoughtful about the places you visit; one-night stands could be risky, especially if there are confirmed cases of Covid-19 in your area, because having sex obviously involves close contact; and there's no need to lock up your partner or roommate if you hear them sniffling."
Muldoon emphasizes such important procedures such as wiping your smartphone is an important first-step:
"Just imagine that all those tables you put your phone down on, the counter, all those things that your hands touch that you then go text on your phone, they're all just attached to your phone now. If they make you nervous and you'd like them to be super clean, wipe down your phone."
What's most important is that if you are feeling sick, cancel.
"If you have that 'I feel kind of crappy, my nose isn't running, but I don't feel great" feeling, please don't go on the date," she advises.
But, she adds: "I don't think it's necessary to enforce celibacy and not date until coronavirus is gone, partly because we'll all go insane [laughs]. Normal life to some extent does continue during outbreaks, both historically and now. That's not an entirely bad thing, because humans need to be human. I would say be a little more thoughtful about dating."
As for hook-ups, anonymous or not, Muldoon says:
"Here's the problem with the one-night stand: There's a little less conversation that happens to make sure that people are making good decisions [from a health perspective]. If you're in a place where there's almost no transmission yet, it's probably okay.
I might take it as a moment to do a little bit of getting on my online flirting skills — have slightly longer chats with people — and I would probably avoid the right-now decisions. I hate saying that, but it's quite probable that people are a little bit less upfront with each other in situations like that than they are if they've been talking for a minute."
While the coronavirus isn't sexually transmitted, it can be easily be transmitted through sexual behavior, especially if you kiss.
"Kissing is probably the most efficient way to spread the virus. [Covid-19] does not appear to sexually transmit. However, all sex is close contact. You're breathing on each other, you're hopefully touching each other a lot. I guess I could imagine everybody showering, sanitizing yourself when you came into the house, and showering beforehand and making sure you're never face-to-face, but it doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
"The short line on this is all sex is close contact. It's the definition of close contact. So there's no way to have it without risking transmission."
It is an opinion shared by Dr. Muhammad Munir of Britain's Lancaster University's department of biomedical and life sciences, who told the Guardian:
"Coronavirus itself is not a sexually transmitted disease. But as during sex there is very close contact between two individuals, the chance of someone contracting the virus from another infected person is almost 100%, specifically due to the kissing involved."(Coronavirus is transmitted through respiratory droplets, so kissing someone infected with it puts you at high risk, he explains.).
"Dating has a high risk of transmission," Munir told the Guardian, "because you tend to have more prolonged contact with the other person. You may kiss them, hug them or hold their hand for a couple of hours. The longer the duration you have contact with someone, the greater the risk of transmission."
Being aware of your partner's general health - including knowing about their HIV-status - is also an important thing to know. Those with compromised immune systems are at greater risk of serious infection from the coronavirus.
"If your partner is immunocompromised, HIV positive, autoimmune suppressant, be a little more careful. [With] chemo — all the things that increase people's risk for getting infections — be a little more paranoid. Be aware of your partner's general health, and if your partner has anything that puts them at higher risk for infection, then be more careful. Because that's a different situation, and it's worth being more cautious," she told Vox.