AIBU to think this is incredibly wasteful, hysterical and doesn’t make sense anyway?!

[Dennisreynoldsduster]

I’ll caveat this by saying I have experience with anxiety and have been anxious about the media frenzy and increasingly disturbing videos/info coming out of China regarding coronavirus.
So I’m not belittling anxiety.

However my friend informed me today that shes been to Costco and bought toothbrushes in bulk and is using a NEW toothbrush every time she cleans her teeth to avoid “bacteria” on the brush because of coronavirus.
She doesn’t seem to be introducing other precautions such as washing her hands more, antibac gel or whatever, this seems to be the summation of her efforts.

It’s batshit right? It’s not just me? I was so astonished I couldn’t quite articulate my argument as to why this will make no difference at all other than to point out that it makes no sense!

That is ridiculous. When we have had periods of illness in the family, who tend to throw their toothbrushes all in a gross soggy heap, I have used Milton fluid for a while. You could suggest this to her if she is really worried.

I've lost the will to live...............

We replace our bathroom mats (5 bathrooms - sob!) every week. DH “knows” they would be clean after a hot wash but has an irrational fear about dirty feet/floors.

I know just how you feel, we have to re-tile each of our 35 kitchens daily as DH doesn’t like the smell of Cif

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus
Do you mean actually chucking them in the bin or washing them?

@GoodDogBellaBoo They grew back but were never quite the same in terms of thickness and shape.

DOES your friend suffer from anxiety, do you think? If so, I wouldn't expect her response to be particularly rational. It must be very debilitating to be so frightened of getting ill.

I don't understand your assertion that you aren't belittling anxiety, followed by a reference to her behaviour as "batshit".

Tell her she could disinfect(ish) the brush head in a cap of listerine (original, the yellowy alcohol one) after she brushes and before swilling with it.

Might give each toothbrush a longer life?

oh dear i shouldnt laugh but surely buying a toothbrush will be the new cancel the cheque>

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus thanks for expanding. I HATE the thought of anyone wearing shoes in the house, my stomach turns when someone walks into our hallway without thinking to take their shoes off first. I don’t have OCD so I can only imagine how your OH suffers!

Your friend needs some Milton sterilising fluid or tablets for her toothbrush OP.

The irony is, those plastic toothbrushes probably come from... yep, China.

Not that anyone is likely to catch the virus from Chinese toothbrushes, but still.

These types of threads do make me realise why the planet’s fucked though.

@Saracen it’s not meant to be mean, I’ve done some batshit crazy things myself when anxious - and she hasn’t previously suffered with it, she seems to think it’s more common sense than anything else . She thinks I’m batshit for not doing this also.

She sounds really quite stupid.

She's being ridiculous. We use bamboo toothbrushes, I think they are naturally anti bac but obviously that's not going to help with viruses, we use them because they are compostable and not plastic.

does she think her teeth have been to China without her???

People have gone crazy.

I think some people have always been crazy about bacteria/germs/dirt and this new virus is just giving them justification for their behaviour.

I agree it doesn't really make any sense medically, but if it makes her feel calmer fine, she's not harming anyone

Only the planet!

Never mind the toothbrushes! 5 bathroom mats a week!!! How much is that costing you?
At £5 a mat that would be £1300 a year! Not to mention 260 discarded mats.

I’m a bit worried about the 1% who think this is a good idea!

I really don’t know whether Coronavirus can spread via toothbrushes, but I would have thought that for this to happen, you would need to have a person who actually has Coronavirus sharing your bathroom (and possibly also sharing your toothbrush).

And, if you’re in that close contact with someone who has Coronavirus, then changing a toothbrush isn’t really going to reduce your chances of catching it.

I assume the bath mats are donated somewhere rather than binned. No decent person would send them to landfill.

“We replace our bathroom mats (5 bathrooms - sob!) every week. DH “knows” they would be clean after a hot wash but has an irrational fear about dirty feet/floors.”

Doesn’t he ever use hotels? Their bath mats have seen plenty of feet, and just get chucked in the wash.

Replacing 5 bath mats weekly is insane . If he has these issues could he not have the simple wit to confine himself to one bathroom??

“We replace our bathroom mats (5 bathrooms - sob!) every week. DH “knows” they would be clean after a hot wash but has an irrational fear about dirty feet/floors.”

Does he use a different bathroom every day? Why can’t he just stick to one bathroom