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Terri,
Thank you very much for your apply. I have a few follow up questions:
Again, I am curious about the risk for a number of things:
1. I have heard that mucus is another way that the virus can spread; is there any risk for touching my nose then touching things or sneezing into the air, on people, or on objects?
2. Contact of others with my blood, pus, saliva, etc.
3. Accidentally getting saliva on people while talking.
4. I have heard that sometimes the virus can get into one’s fingers; what are the chances of this, and does this pose a possible risk for masturbating a girl during a sexual encounter?
5. What is the risk, of transmitting HSV-1 through kissing?
a. What about kissing someone’s eyes?
b. What about performing oral sex on a female?
6. For most of the activities I asked about, you said there was ‘no risk,’ however, for Jiu Jitsu you said “no real risk”. Assuming I do not have an active cold sore (I have never had one as far as I know), what is the risk here, how small is it, and what are the factors that make this activity have some very small risk whereas the other activities did not have any risk?
7. You said: “I hope you can stick to believing reasonable risks though I would guess that this is a theme you’ve encountered before.”
If I understood you correctly, you meant that I should simply continue with activities that have reasonably small risks without avoidance or succumbing to compulsions, e.g., washing my hands or confessing/disclosing. Is that what you meant? I have encountered this theme before; one of my themes is acting ethically (which is of course not itself a problem, but the degree of perfectionism that I would like to achieve does seem to make this a problem; i.e., I would like to have zero risk), and so the question of disclosure, and the possibility of taking even tiny risks with other people’s health are particularly problematic for me and are potential opportunities for compulsion.
Thank you again for your time and attention. It is much appreciated.
Best.