What has this to do with virus spread you might well ask.
It is significant.
Just as the introduction of home fridges in the US correlated with both increased public sanitation and
decreased food borne illness, the presence of a fridge in the house fundamentally changed the shopping and food habits of the US.
The average fridge in the US is not small. Most have both a freezer and a cooling section. There is enough room for several days worth of perishable groceries. The freezer section, even in the smallest “house size” can hold frozen veg, a pizza and some ice cream.
Now, and for those of you who have experienced the fridge size on a cruise ship or hotel room, think of that size as the norm in most homes across Europe. Most homes in Europe are not single family dwellings. Most live in units which maybe in smaller buildings to large scale apartment buildings such as you see in China or S. Korea.
In those situations, you have to shop often for fresh items. Daily as a matter of fact if there is more than 1-2 people living there. Plus you have the cultural aspect of daily shopping which can be extremely important as social contact if you are older and have been living this way your whole life. When we lived in Germany for so many years, while we never got in the habit of shopping EVERY day, we certainly went to the bakery rather often. The small Italian grocer’s shop received fresh vegetables in season several times a week driven directly by her brother from Italy along with hand made pasta.
How does that work if you are shelter in place?
In Korea, they delivered directly to the large apartment buildings several times a week so that no one had to leave their building.
Here (US), grocery stores can still be crowded. Even tho there are several of us, our fridge can hold food + condiments and the freezer more than 1-2 containers of ice cream.
Does it make a difference?
