Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time

[vera99]

A heresy to some MNetters but seemingly wise words nevertheless.

"..........Instead, many of these establishments are boasting about their cleaning practices while inviting strangers into unventilated indoor spaces to share one another’s microbial exhalations. This logic is warped. It completely misrepresents the nature of an airborne threat. It’s as if an oceanside town stalked by a frenzy of ravenous sharks urged people to return to the beach by saying, We care about your health and safety, so we’ve reinforced the boardwalk with concrete. Lovely. Now people can sturdily walk into the ocean and be separated from their limbs.

By funneling our anxieties into empty cleaning rituals, we lose focus on the more common modes of COVID-19 transmission and the most crucial policies to stop this plague. “My point is not to relax, but rather to focus on what matters and what works,” Goldman said. “Masks, social distancing, and moving activities outdoors. That’s it. That’s how we protect ourselves. That’s how we beat this thing.”

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/

Ugh. I agree. All I can taste is chemicals when I come home from work. It's madness and probably doing more harm to our health than covid. I'm all for basic good hygiene but the obsession with spraying and disinfecting everything to within an inch of its life can't be good for us long term and I'm not convinced it's necessary or doing much to stop the spread.

Very interesting article, thanks for posting. However, I doubt it will have much effect on the MNers who've spent the last 5 months quarantining post and wiping groceries with Dettol.

If it makes them happy.... but actually the more serious point is we should be marshalling energy and resources to things that make a difference not getting diverted down OCD useless side alleys...

there are known knowns now as Donald Rumsfeld liked to say ...

👍👍 I’ve read the motto should be space, face, hands. Social distancing is the most important of all the measures

Yes. Most teachers/school staff are very much experiencing this situation.

This is why I won't return to the cinema any time soon.

Totally agree @vera99

I agree. I'm not allowed to take a worksheet of off my learners, it needs to be quarantined for an ever changing period of time before I can mark it. I can, however, sit in a poorly ventilated room with them without masks. But it's ok because some poor soul comes round cleaning the door knobs every half hour, so we're all safe. Never mind the increasing number of positive cases in the college, we just need to clean the desks done harder and it will all be ok

I agree. Hand washing/sanitising after touching high touch surfaces is a sensible precaution, but our government's poor messaging has left a lot of people with the impression that it's all about hand sanitising, in some cases to the point that it's downright dangerous because people are under the impression that they can avoid catching the virus through cleaning and hand sanitising alone.

Yes! I spent an enforced hour in a mall today, but it was fine because there were “Keep right” signs everywhere. Really??!

The inconvenient truth is that (probably necessarily) fairly ruthless risk/benefits analyses are being made by SAGE and then the messaging follows that. Business and schools must stay open - if masks are needed in shops and malls then it follows they are more than necessary in a classroom for the older staff at least.

Yup completely agree. The refusal to accept aerosol transmission means we're making completely bizarre choices that actually increase risk. It's doing my head in!

Minutes of SAGE behavioral science group (SPI-B) for 23 March.
“Use media to increase sense of personal threat.”
“Consider use of social disapproval for failure to comply.”

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882722/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf

I agree. It clearly doesnt work for most colds or the whole country wouldnt have one.
Masks and distancing.
Including in schools
Dc1 had a cold within 8d despite them supposedly doing their hands frequently at school.

If nothing else ideally you wouldnt have anyone in with any cold symptoms as it puts pressure on the testing

My GP surgery is covered in loud yellow and black tape and arrows. Chairs are taped off, every third seat that we can sit on is covered in polythene. And yet, the central heating is blasting out and not a window open. The utter lack of common sense displayed is astonishing.

Yes, the madness is in full evidence in schools all over the country. Secondary schools are killing teachers by dragging them into different rooms every period where they have to clean multiple touch points in rooms full of stale air with no windows that open and no teenagers in masks.

I have 5 days left to resign and believe me I'm weighing my options.

I agree too. I have a friend who works as a PT at a gym and she is worried about the fogging.

I am not hand sanitising unless it's a requirement to get a service I want, like going to the hairdresser. If a non-essential shop want me to do it I'll buy online instead.

Watching the lifeguards wipe down the handrail of a chlorinated swimming pool makes me laugh

Where possible, being outdoors and good ventilation is the best bet.

The research on masks is not on the average member of the public's cloth that's been pulled out of their pocket, used previously, and chosen for comfort or style not performance. Most people are basically wearing a hanky over their airways.
But masks are easy to see and froth over and to make it look like you're doing something.

So many stupid school rules like the school bags, so the kids come out clutching armfuls of jumpers, coats, water bottles, reading records and luchboxes while the wind whips their homework or spellings off across the playground.