How long is it airborne for?

[kitbuddy]

I was doing really well these last two weeks, and then I get a reminder that I'm not quite "normal" yet...

Today I ran into a grocery store to grab a couple things. At the end of one of the aisles, I saw an employee carrying a mop. I grabbed my item one aisle over (ironically, rubber gloves for cooking), but when I walked to the other end of the aisle, he was spraying something from an unmarked bottle and mopping a section of the floor. Of course my emet mind immediately thought someone had v* and he was spraying something to kill the germs. I dropped my item and left. (I can go back another day). When I got home, I wiped down my phone and purse. I took my shoes off outside, too.

I know it's EXTREMELY unlikely, but IF someone had v* and IF it were from something contagious, how small is the chance of exposure? There was no visible mess when I was near it, so it had to have been at least 3-5 minutes. v* particles aren't airborne that long, are they?

[psalm139]

I'm not sure how much this will help but I came across thishttp://www.stopthestomachflu.com/Home/how-is-the-stomach-flu-transmitted

[AIR32]

In my opinion your chance of catching anything from today are the same as any other day. Slim. You weren't exposed to any v*. In all honesty until I came on here I never even knew you could catch it if you were in the room with someone getting sick from airborne particles. I am still iffy on it.

Just for exposure sake, when I was younger I shared a twin bed with my mom, one night I woke up and got sick no warning, and she caught it all. On her pillow her hair, (I feel so bad now that I am older and know how gross that is), but after that she never got sick and if airborne was an issue that is impossible she didn't ingest enough to make her sick. This is not the only time something similar to this happened and she was fine. Other family members too.

Try not to worry you have already cleaned up enough if there even was a chance that you were exposed so rest easy!!!

[kitbuddy]

That's what I was thinking. IF (again, not likely) someone had v*, they would have been long gone by the time I even walked into the store. And I touched ONE thing two aisles over, WAY more than 10 feet away. Plus, the guy with the mop wasn't wearing gloves. Whenever I've been in a store and something has spilled (i.e, a bottle of sauce or something) they wear gloves when they clean it. I think something sticky was on the floor and that's why he was using the spray bottle.

Ugh, I wish I could just be rational, but my emetophobic/germaphobic brain won't let me!

[AoD]

Usually it settles in less than a minute or two, the particles are pretty big (for droplets, at least) so they settle very fast. You weren't there when it happened, you should be just fine.