VIDEO: Practical tips on safe grocery shopping

Here's how to stay safe while buying groceries amid the coronavirus pandemic
Erin DiCaprio, University of California, Davis

Masks and social distancing can help protect shoppers from the
coronavirus, but gloves aren’t recommended.
Mario Tama/Getty Images 

Wear a mask, but skip the gloves. Don’t sanitize the apples. And if you are older than 65, it’s probably best to still order your groceries online.

As a food virologist, I hear a lot of questions from people about the coronavirus risks in grocery stores and how to stay safe while shopping for food amid the pandemic.

Here are answers to some of the common questions.

Can I touch the tomatoes?

What you touch on the grocery shelves is less of a concern than who breathes on you and other surfaces you might come in contact with in a store. In fact, there is currently no evidence of the virus being transmitted by food or food packaging.

You may have heard about studies showing that the virus can remain infectious for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 72 hours on plastic or stainless steel.

These are controlled laboratory studies, in which high levels of infectious virus are applied to the surfaces and humidity and temperature held constant.

In these experiments, the level of infectious virus – virus capable of causing disease – decreased even after a few hours, indicating that the virus does not survive well on these surfaces.

The highest risk is close contact with other people who may be shedding virus in droplets as they sneeze, talk or breathe nearby.

Next would be high-touch surfaces, like door handles, where someone not practicing good hand hygiene might have transferred the virus to the surface. In this scenario, you would have to touch this surface and then touch your own mucus membranes – your eyes, mouth or ears – to contract the illness.

Think about how often a surface is touched, and then decide if you can avoid the riskiest spots or use hand sanitizer after touching them. Significantly more people touch door handles and credit card machines compared to a tomato in a bin.

Do I need to sanitize my food when I get home?

No, you do not need to sanitize your food when you get home, and trying to do so can actually be dangerous.

Dog Pound Monopoly officially ends

Town picks a new beach concessionaire, ending 11-year monopoly at Charlestown Town Beach

By Will Collette

One of the “sleeper” items in the Town Council’s March 12 “consent agenda” was approval of a new contract with Johnny Angels clam shack to provide concession services at both town beaches. Johnny Angels out-bid Councilor Lisa DiBello’s room mate and business associate Deborah Dellolio who has held a monopoly on the concessions for 11 years through “The Dog Pound,” Dellolio’s hot dog wagon business.

Last September, I uncovered conflicts of interest, low payments to the town, lack of Health Department inspections and issues about the Dog Pound’s operations. After a summer of trouble, the town notified Dellolio that it would not extend her contract a second year and would put out the 2012 summer concession contract out to bid.

Top Twenty Stories of 2011

What a year it has been!

Progressive Charlestown's #1 story

By the editors of Progressive Charlestown

Progressive Charlestown was launched on January 28, 2011 with an article on affordable housing by Tom Ferrio. That article turned out to be the first of many on that topic – and on many other topics we’ve covered. Here are our top twenty editors' picks, counting up from the bottom,

Story number 20 is: Progressive Charlestown makes it through its first year. In 11 months, we published 1100+ articles, 1300+ comments and got over 120,000 hits. Often, we've scooped all the rest when covering Charlestown stories and we usually give you more depth than any other source.

The Pound Papers, part 2

Town rejects Dog Pound contract renewal after a summer of trouble

By Will Collette

This is the on-going saga of Town Council member Lisa DiBello and the Dog Pound, a now former beach concession business run under contract with Charlestown by DiBello’s long-time housemate and business associate Deborah Dellolio. After a short re-cap, I'll continue my report based on a new collection of town documents I received under the state open records law.

The Pound Papers, Part 1

No day at the beach with the Dog Pound

By Will Collette

Last week, I reported Charlestown plans to re-bid the contract for the beach concessions at the two town beaches, rather than extend the contract for the existing concessionaire for another year.

That concessionaire is Deborah Dellolio, owner of the Dog Pound hot dog wagon. Dellolio held a decade-long monopoly at Charlestown Town Beach and, this past summer, also won the right to sell hot dogs and junk food at Blue Shutters Beach, too. Dellolio is the long-time housemate and business associate of Town Council member Lisa DiBello.

Town Council Meeting Previews, Part 1

Mageau doesn't think Deputy Dan
ran an honest investigation

Mageau plans to drop “bombshell”

By Will Collette

Actually, it’s more likely going to be a stink bomb, rather than a bombshell, but Charlestown’s most beloved citizen, Jim Mageau, is on the agenda early on in next Monday’s Town Council meeting under “Persons Wishing to Be Heard.”

Based on a news release which apparently only the Chariho Times has decided to use (see current print edition), Mageau intends to stand before the Council and denounce Council Vice-President “Deputy Dan” Slattery’s “investigation” of allegations by an “anonymous” citizen (Jim Mageau).

Man bites dog

That's "Dog Pound," actually
By Will Collette

Charlestown Parks and Recreation Director Jay Primiano has formally notified Deborah Dellolio, owner of the Dog Pound hot dog concessionaire, that the town will not renew her contract to service the two town beaches for a second year.

DiBello takes a big step toward suing Charlestown

RI Human Rights Commission waives jurisdiction, grants DiBello "Right to Sue"
By Will Collette

Charlestown Council Member Lisa DiBello has been granted to right to skip the administrative complaint process and take her complaint of retaliatory firing by the town directly to Superior Court. On October 25, DiBello was granted this right. On October 26, she notified the town.

Who cares if Lisa DiBello doesn’t file legally required forms?

Or if she files late? Or misreports or leaves out important facts?

By Will Collette

Lisa DiBello asked Charlestown voters to elect her in 2010 on the motto “Because I Care.” But the pattern of disregard for transparency and accountability shown in her record seems to say she doesn’t care.

Once DiBello took office, it didn’t take long to see that, contrary to her campaign promises, she was determined to settle old scores with the legions of people in town who have “persecuted” her. Pay-back seemed to be what DiBello cared about most.

Lots about DiBello Charity Just Doesn’t Add Up, Part 2

In constant trouble with the Secretary of State

By Will Collette

When Lisa DiBello was running for the Charlestown Council, she took part in a September 23, 2010 candidates’ forum sponsored by the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee. She made a splendid presentation on her qualifications for the office – her long time residence in town and her years of service as Parks and Recreation Director (until she was fired). She stressed her campaign slogan “Because she cares,” and startled the audience by pledging that, if elected, she would donate her Town Council stipend ($2500) to a local charity, RI-CAN. 

But why pledge the money to RI-CAN when DiBello could have pledged it to A Ray of Hope, the charity she established and used to get a lot of publicity? After all, that’s what she did after winning a car on The PriceIs Right.

But there was a small problem. At that time, A Ray of Hope didn’t actually exist.

Complaint and cheeky response

“What Would the Dalai Lama Do?”

By Will Collette

Reacting to the latest installment in PC’s Lisa DiBello investigative series, Charlestown reader Patricia A. Curry Almeida sent Progressive Charlestown this e-mail:

Dalai Lama

Spirituality concerns our own motivation, while secular activity implies working in the world. Because motivation pervades all action, it is important that we have a positive motivation. Whatever we are involved in, whether it's politics, education, medicine, law, engineering, science, business or industry, the nature of our motivation determines the character of our work.

Your cheeky blog has become mean spirited and evil.

No one can really know what is in another person’s heart – I’m sure the Dalai Lama probably said some variation on this – so I leave it to readers to decide whether what I write (or what my PC colleagues write) is “mean-spirited and evil.”

In the latest installment of the DiBello series, I covered whether DiBello has met the basic requirements the government places on tax-exempt charities for accountability and transparency. I believe I provided concrete evidence that she does not.

But being challenged by Ms. Curry Almeida with the words of the Dalai Lama made me think – Does the Dalai Lama follow the rules when it comes to accountability and transparency? Here’s what I found out.

Playing Monopoly at the Beach, Part 3

The continuing series on the business dealings of Council member Lisa DiBello

By Will Collette

In part one of this series, I examined how differently Charlestown has awarded its contracts for beach concessions at the two town beaches. At Blue Shutters Beach, there has been healthy competitive bidding resulting in almost $60,000 revenues to the town. By contrast, only one vendor, The Dog Pound, has held a monopoly at Charlestown Town Beach and, in contrast to Blue Shutters Beach, had only paid the town $17,002.

In part two of this series, we established that the direct overseer of beach concessions, Parks and Recreation Director Lisa DiBello, shared a household and a business with the owner of the Dog Pound, Deborah Dellolio. DiBello not only supervised the beach concessions, but also made the recommendations – and even the direct arguments before the Council – that her friend and associate be awarded the beach contracts.

In this segment, we’ll look at some questionable business practices at the beach.

Playing Monopoly at the Beach, Part 2

Did Lisa DiBello help her business associate pass “Go”?

By Will Collette

In Part 1, I compared the revenue the town of Charlestown receives for concession rights at the two town beaches. Concessionaires at Blue Shutters Beach bid fiercely for the contract and, as a result, the town has received almost $60,000 in fees.

However, at Charlestown Town Beach, the same concessionaire, The Dog Pound, has held a monopoly since 2001, usually getting the contract with no competition, but has only paid $17,002 to the town. This is a pretty good illustration of why state law requires government contracts to be competitively bid.

In this installment, we’re going to look at how that competition actually works in Charlestown’s beach concessions.

Playing Monopoly at the Beach

Short-changing Charlestown taxpayers

By Will Collette

A peculiar dispute involving beach concessions surfaced at the June and July Town Council meetings involving Council member Lisa DiBello, Town Administrator William DiLibero and Parks and Recreation Director Jay Primiano. We covered the blow-by-blow in some detail, though many of the charges and countercharges were veiled in coded language.

Since so much of the dispute seemed to really be about something deeper, I decided to look deeper into the way Charlestown handles its contracts for beach concessions.

Over the past several weeks, with help from the other members of the PC team and some outside research assistance, a picture has emerged of a monopoly in the awarding of beach concession contracts that has cost town taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. And there are questions about ethics, bid law, public safety, taxes and employment law.

This article is the first in a series of investigative reports on what we’ve found.