It's Brian Lehrer, and this is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

This is a Saturday special.

Now we'll return to the topic of how to protect yourself from coronavirus,

including for this edition, how to protect yourself in the

delivery economy, workers and customers alike, also protecting workers and customers

when people still do go out shopping. And we'll talk about more, too. My guest is Dr. Stephen

Morse, epidemiology professor at the Columbia University Medical Center and director of their

infectious disease epidemiology certificate program. Dr. Morse, thanks so much for coming on

WNYC with us today. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be back with you. Dr. Morse, I saw you quoted

in an article on Slate on the question of which is safer for customers right now,

shopping in person or taking deliveries. Is the answer clear cut?

I think in general it's safer to take delivery simply because if you go out to the supermarket,

you're coming in contact with a lot of people. And most of the transmission of this virus is really

person to person. It's through the respiratory route. And so it is safer to have a delivery.

On the other hand, think about the employees. We take them for granted, but they're very much

a part of our essential economy today, and they're really on the front

lines.

Many deliveries come in cardboard boxes.

How well and how long does the virus live on cardboard?

Well, theoretically, there are some studies that show that the virus can live for hours

or perhaps a day on cardboard,

but realistically, it's not that easy probably to get infected by the virus that way.

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