I will start by stating that many people have worn gloves for very various reasons personally and professionally before the start of this pandemic. If the reasons for wearing gloves in those situations are still valid, there is no reason to change your activity.
Now with respect to Covid-19 safeguards, there is no answer that should apply to everyone here.
Perhaps you have heard of or uttered these phrases; “stop using gloves!!”, or “why aren’t you using gloves!!” People that know me know I am a firm believer that intelligence stops when you are rigid in your thinking. I am not interested in engaging in this debate of shaming those who USE or DO NOT use gloves. The ‘elephant in the room’ is the issue of cross contamination, coupled with fears of having a false sense of security that creates more harm than good. These concerns do have SOME validity to them. I also suspect many of those critical of those wearing gloves are guilty of (even unintentionally) contaminating surfaces with their bare hands. On the other hand, your hands are more porous than gloves. Gloves are a more stable surface for a virus, meaning better conditions for longer shelf life. What bridges the gap between lulling oneself into a false sense of security and critically thinking is education and awareness. Each individual needs to make intelligent decisions for themselves independent of the good opinion of others. There are many times I use gloves knowing I am not to nor trying to make an effort to totally curb cross-contamination amongst a variety of surfaces. But what I am trying to do in these instances is one of 2 things; prevent certain key areas from being contaminated. Second, I try to make sure some areas I deem as extremely high risk (gas pumps, high traffic entrances) don’t come into contact with my bare hands. Knowing we are not perfect, we may forget to wash our hands properly or at all that one time, before touching our faces. Just in case I did one of these things, I used gloves for an extremely high-risk area and then immediately discarded my gloves. Sometimes decreasing the probability of putting ourselves at risk is as much of a win as eliminating all risk. But there is one key to properly wearing gloves that we must understand. It is not about wearing gloves but removing gloves that is the true key to protect yourself and others.
The proper removal of gloves is comparable to washing or using sanitizer on your bare your hands. When it comes to curbing cross-contamination many people do not think of this critical step, removing gloves safely. You want to wear gloves to keep substances from your hands. Have the palm up, of the first glove you would like to remove. Take your other hand and pinch the glove on your other hand about 1 inch from your wrist.
Pull forward, removing gloves.
Now, onto removing the second glove. Take your other hand, put your finger under the glove.
Pull glove forward to remove from hand.
Conclusion
Can I live without gloves? Yes. Do I use them frequently? Absolutely. I use them for UNIQUE situations. Part of making gloves a productive versus counterproductive part of your routine is having a thoughtful plan.