You Can Measure the Temperature With a Meat Thermometer
Much like isopropyl alcohol and Clorox wipes, the coronavirus pandemic has made oral thermometers an incredibly popular commodity. If you haven’t been able to track it down to measure your temperature, you may already have a solution in your kitchen – as it turns out, meat thermometers work just as well on a person’s mouth as they do on roasts and steaks.
Instant-read digital meat thermometers work just like the one you store in your medicine cabinet: disinfect the sensor with rubbing alcohol, tuck it tightly under your tongue, close your lips tightly, and wait for the numbers to stop changing. It may be a little sharper than you’d expect and won’t beep when the reading is complete, but neither is critical, especially when not knowing if you have a fever is the alternative. Just pay attention to the numbers on the display and be careful not to stab yourself (or your family members) in the tongue.
Unfortunately, old-school dial thermometers are clearly less useful for measuring your temperature. They can work as long as they can measure temperatures over the 100ºF range with an accuracy of one degree. However, a simple thermometer that measures in 5-degree increments is functionally useless because the difference between normal body temperature and raging fever is often 5 degrees Fahrenheit or less. If that’s all you have, a digital meat thermometer is worth picking up; they still sell well on Amazon and in stores and cost around $ 15. Plus, when this is all over, you have a handy kitchen tool to rely on for years to come.