Refusing to go out

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I feel like such a childish and ridiculous wimp by not wanting take my car down to get its MOT done all because I'm nervous about having someone touch everything even though he is bound to have gloves on and stuff. I won't want to go to town or anywhere once shops reopen and feel like I'd wait until cases drop to zero.

You'll be fine, I bet. Cars do not take well to being left idle for a long time. I did not start mine for several weeks at the beginning of lockdown and it smoked like a furnace when I started it the first time after that. Always good to have your repairs and inspections done.

Just have it fixed & maybe drive a bit to exercise the engine (fluids circulated, piston rings seated etc.) and you should be ok.

In the States we do not have MOT testing. It appears to be a mandated test in England, Scotland, and Wales to assess the road worthiness of a vehicle. When I lived in California, they mandated smog test biennially. That was a hassle. Luckily where I live no test are required.

I took my wife's car in to be serviced a week ago. Her radiator was leaking and needed to be replaced. We simply dropped off the car and came back a few hours later and picked it up. No hassle. Everything seems to be opening back up. The risk is very minimal unless you are old like me (71) or have certain preexisting medical conditions such as diabetes, heart problems, lung problems.

We have something similar in the US. It's called inspection. Each state decides how it does it. My state does it once a year. Some states don't require it at all. I think Colorado is one of those states. States like Maryland only require one inspection when you each new owner purchases the vehicle. Maryland requires the car to pass inspection when you buy it but not after that. My state requires that I pass it every year. They also do emissions tests as well.

You don't need to. MOT's have been automatically renewed. Have a read here to see if you qualify

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus ... march-2020

Experience shows that the main hazard is people who don't have symptoms, but don't wear masks for close encounters. Surface transmission is fairly rare, and you are safe to disinfect things as long as you don't touch your face until you have finished and cleaned your hands. Gloves are pretty useless unless they are changed more often than hands get washed. I see store clerks who have worn the finger tips right off their gloves - worse than useless.

Whenever I’ve needed an MOT/service done, they’ve come to my home, picked up my car and taken it in to carry out the MOT. They usually give me a choice, which I’m very grateful for.

We don't have inspection here except for used imports. I keep hearing horror stories about multi-thousand dollar bills on fairly new cars. Even if the mechanics are competent, they are often caught padding their bills. I do my own work, and have never needed a tow. For twenty years of driving reliable, economical, but unfashionable cars, my total expenses in parts and depreciation have been under $4,000.

Do you live in the western part of the US?

Cases might never drop to zero

In the meantime, presumably you are paying the Insurance

If you have to wait until cases drop to zero, you might as well sell the car

There is no way to guarantee that you will never get coronovirus or a different contagious disease

No, I'm 300 miles north of Montana.

It is not childish or wimpy to be afraid of going out and doing these things because of COVID. A lot of people are feeling exactly the same, and the government kind of want everyone to be as paranoid or afraid as you are.
I must admit I'm not overly paranoid about catching COVID, but I'm still following the rules and keeping 2 metres apart and washing my hands, etc. What I'm more afraid of is all the precise rules they have in any type of store now, I'm so scared that I might accidentally break a rule and get fined or something, or be yelled at by someone if I cough or sneeze, or whatever.

The way I see it, there are two types of people.
One are the overly paranoid people (not saying they're childish or wimps at all) who think that COVID is a death sentence for everyone, and the other are the optimistic people who try to think that there's a chance that the person who briefly came less than 2 metres near them has not got COVID at all. I'm in the latter, but I still follow the rules because I want to be alert. But I just go by common sense.

Hey don't feel childish or a wimp, you're exercising caution. Even without the covid, it's stressful enough to hand, over something to someone, that will then be there responsibility until you get it back, that is stressful alone but given recent events, your concerns are very valid. Surely in this case, theirs exceptions and it can be moved back a bit.

What I am picking up from sources such as microbe.tv is that being close to an infected person for 15 minutes give a significant risk of becoming infected. The shorter the time close to someone the lower the chances.

The biggest mechanism for infection seems to be the tiny moisture droplets we breath out which carry virus particle if the person is infected.

A face covering does two things if you have the infection. It may traps some of the droplets which is one line of protection for other people. it also slows down the air you breath out, which means you are much less likely to propel those droplets which do get through as far as another person, especially if people are also keeping apart.

I feel really stressed out. Theirs loads of reported stabbings and unreported stabbings, threats and abuse throughout the uk. All these protests. It’s gone back to being noisy and hectic the roads. Noise pollution and general pollution and they’ll be a second COVID surge. People are at war with race again