Hand washing since the pandemic...

[TheGreenDragon]

Have we as a nation learnt nothing?

Still seeing women come out of the toilet cubicle, sprinkle a little water over their fingertips for a few seconds then leave.

No soap, no hot water, no rubbing of hands and certainly not lasting at least 20 seconds.

DH and I were discussing this the other day. He said he sees men leave cubicles / urinals all the time without washing their hands!

Yep. It’s just as gross now as it was before the pandemic. I’m always shocked by the number of people in public loos that don’t wash their hands. Eww.

I try to always wash my hands but suffer with lack of feeling on my fingers made worse by cold. Often places dont have hot water, or even warm, then the hand driers are cold so I either blow cold air over hands with cold water on them or I leave them wet with cold water. Painful and distressing for me. I have hand sanitiser in the car and tissues but you probably dont see that.

I still clean the trolley handle at Sainsbury's but I never see anyone else doing this.

I would but Sainsbury’s don’t provide the blue roll dispenser anymore, it’s like basic hygiene doesn’t matter without a pandemic !

The buses aren’t cleaned anymore either.

I agree it’s absolutely disgusting.

it more about all the surface touches by other people’s germy hands than your own germs

also not washing hands before eating when out the house having touched a million surfaces.

tissue and antibacterial gel are not the same thing.

I swim a lot and 90% who go to the toilet at the pool do not wash their hands with soap and water. It bizarre

Agree. Went to the office the other day, the cubicle next to me was occupied when I went in. They exited straight out of the door. Obvious they’d had a number two- didn’t even pull the flush, didn’t wash their hands.

Oh lordy @Glitchymn1. What really annoyed me recently was trying to use hand gel in a hospital - the dispenser was empty!

I remember my DD being about 3 years old. We went to the toilet when out and about. She watched a lady come out of a cubicle and left the toilet without even attempting to wash her hands. My DD said in that child loud voice thats disgusting! And she was right.

I see it a lot, and am quite surprised we learned nothing. I carry anti bac wipes so we can clean hands before eating as I know we've touched those same surfaces.

I'm especially careful at work as people come in sick & come out sniffling, wiping noses etc. 🤮

I'd be really interested to know if those who are meticulous actually get less ill than those who aren't.

In the pandemic, it was made so clear how much difference good hand washing made. It astounds me that this knowledge hasn't been retained. Only the other week there was a thread where people were cheerfully saying they didn't bother washing their hands after using the loo, especially if it was just a wee.
Disgusting and stupid.

Of course we then found that covid wasn't spread on surfaces (unlike flu) so the hand washing didn't help.with Covid. It probably drastically reduced norovirus though.
People are disgusting!

Yeah we haven't learned anything. We had to have a big hand washing education campaign at the start of the pandemic remember? We've just reverted to the old ways now that the immediate danger has passed. Next dangerous thing we'll all be super vigilant for a while and then we'll all slack off into the old patterns.

I’m with you OP.

I’m disappointed I no longer hear 2 rounds of “happy birthday” at the office sinks.

It can be quite difficult to wash your hands properly in public conveniences, like at cinemas or motorway stopover points, when the taps only dish out a few seconds of water. I persist, waving at the tap every few seconds, until my hands have had a proper scrub, but I notice most people stop washing when the first burst of water dries up.

I have OCD (actual diagnosed OCD) and the hygiene through the pandemic was great for me, I could push the trolley round the supermarket and know it was clean, now it's back to normal and I feel like it's teeming with germs 😫

It's definitely changed the way I wash my hands forever. I always washed them but probably ineffectively. It wouldn't occur to me to wash the handle of a trolley though. I don't see the point when you're going to walk round the shop picking stuff up.

I hate to tell you but I’m an infrequent / half arsed hand washer and I am very very rarely ill. Same for everyone in our household - I can count on 1 hand the number of times DS12 has been sick. I’m not sure ‘germs’ are as terrifying as everyone thinks!

We all have germs on us right now, Im not sure what people think they're washing off in any case.

I was hoping this was a good habit, but people have dropped it

I have always been maybe OTT about washing my hands I don't know

When I worked in offices, I used to clean touch points. And during Covid a couple of people actually contacted me and apologised for thinking I was bonkers.

I also think these people who don't wash their hands must never have had norovirus. I'm not going to be graphic, but it's truly horrendous. We have problematic outbreaks of that every year. And it is a big problem in hospitals, etc. And it wrecked my stomach for ages which is quite common, apparently.

I always wash my hands unless the facilities are so disgusting that I genuinely think I'm more likely to pick up germs from the handwashing area e.g. no soap or I know that the water is boiling hot or not hot at all.

If I've used my shoulder amd tissues to open the doors and not touched my bits or the flush, there isn't a chance I'm going near a soapless cesspit with my bare hands.

Eta, I always wash well at home and in public most of the time. I wash before meals, after coming in from outdoors, after gardening, handling shoes/laces or cleaning. But some toilets are too gross.

In public after touching things or going to the loo I use appropriate percentage hand sanitiser. Then again when I’ve touched the doors to get out. Once I’m home I scrub my hands well with soap or antibacterial hand wash. Sometimes one after the other! I’m happy to no longer feel the need to use dettol wipes on my shopping though - the prize moment being using dettol wipes on a brand new pack of dettol wipes 🙈
I have both Raynauds and Erythromelalgia so my hands aren’t often easy to deal with but I manage.

Yeah it’s disgusting, that’s why I wash my hands a lot or sanitise if I’m out and about. I don’t care if people think I’m OTT. I make sure I wash my hands at a minimum each time I come back in my house and before I eat.

When I worked in offices, I used to clean touch points. And during Covid a couple of people actually contacted me and apologised for thinking I was bonkers

Same! I was like well I didn’t want to say I told you so but yeah…😂 I used to stay in the U.S. in the mid-noughties and it was more of a thing there that I think I brought back with me to the UK.

I’d get some odd /curious looks back in 2010 London when I pulled out sanitiser on the underground lol