Last month, when I was shopping for March, I bought a new thermometer for our household. The one in the photo on the right is our old, digital, under-the-tongue thermometer. It's very reliable and accurate, but it takes time and effort (needs thorough cleaning after each use) to use. I thought we'd want a non-invasive thermometer so that we could quickly check our temps.
I am currently 12 days into staying at home all of the time. My husband is 8 days in. And my daughters are 5 days in to this home isolation. I knew we'd want some sort of thermometer for routine temperature checks during the initial 14 days for each of us. As far as we know, none of us has been exposed. But our immediate area has been particularly hard-hit with this virus, and no one can be certain of their exposure.
The thermometer on the left is a digital temporal thermometer. After depressing the button, you place it against your temple, between your eyebrow and hairline. Temporal temperatures have the lowest rate of accuracy, as your skin can be warm from being in a very warm room (like the kitchen when cooking) or when wearing a hat, or your skin can be cooler than your internal temperature when you first come in from very cold outdoor temperatures. However, I do like this thermometer for quick checks, as they are completely non-invasive and the reading only takes seconds. When someone in our family has registered as being "hot" we follow that reading up with the old, digital under-the-tongue thermometer. The combination of the two thermometers has given us the best of both types.
