To think that hand washing is all very but

[CreakingatTheWhinges]

Unless it's followed up with robust & antibacterial cleaning of mobile phones, handsets in offices, light switches, door handles - basically anything communal or that we might put near our faces/mouths, then it's all a moot point anyway?
(This is my very 1st AIBU so hope I've done it correctly )

I think this will all calm down.

When East meets West, North, South and there are no precisely identifiable cases anymore.

The fact that some people are making a fuss about being asked to wash their hands shows that it's not seen as a normal action by our society. What disgusting, dirty people some have become!

I totally agree about the mobile phone. I’ve been washing my hands constantly but then almost immediately will touch my mobile confused

How do you clean your touch screen sufficiently ?!!

How many other people touch the screen apart from you? You're hardly likely to get cross-contamination from yourself.

I can only assume its becase we have traces of previous infections left over from before

I think that's part of it, but I also think it's because some people simply don't catch it.

There are many different variations of flu. I've only had flu once in my life (and I had another similar viral thing once, but wasn't flu). I'm nearly 50.

I’ve been disinfecting my phone for years after reading about how many bugs there are on them. Not sure how effective my disinfection is. I spritz lightly with a disinfectant leave for a bit and then rub it off with kitchen roll and then do the other side. I also clean and clean and disinfect door handles and my steering wheel and gearstick. I’m a very regular hand washer too. My DH thinks I’m a little strange and that I’m weakening our immune systems due to over cleaning, he may have a point. I don’t know.
Having said that outside of my home (and car) there’s little I can do. At work we have to touch our ids against a sensor to enter every room and also have touch a sensor to leave almost every room (they’ve gone a bit crazy in our newly designed building). I can guarantee those sensors are not cleaned or disinfected regularly. Shudders. I have taken to scanning in by pushing my chest against the sensor and tapping out with my elbow. I’m clearly taking this too seriously.

After several years working in a Nursery ,We washed our hands so much they were sore! Is second nature to wash with antibac gel and sing happy birthday dear dottie twice over !Whether this will completely help Im not sure .Some time ago DH had flu .washed myself with Alcohol cleanser ,still got it !

Ok sure it's already been said but you don't touch the items you mention with your bare hands?

Use a knuckle, side of hand, foot, article of clothing?.
Where possible throughly wash hands, in between douse with gel.

Guacamole I do all that too, and we balance it out by being a shoes on house.
I figure what touches our hands and face is more important than floors we don't touch with our fingers.

I dettol my phone with the ‘spray and leave’ dettol every now and again for good measure, has always seemed reasonable, before and after the Coronavirus worry! The school I work at has antibacterial gel points but can’t source antibac with alcohol from our suppliers. They didn’t want alcohol based antibac previously but now they do it’s not available ‘for love nor money’ apparently!

use your sleeve to open the door

Do we all get every cold? Every flu?

No, but most people have had a ton of colds and some flu before so have some level of immunity to fight off the new ones before they really take hold. Also, flu is fairly heavily vaccinated against amongst vulnerable populations and still absolutely loads of people get it.

There is a good chance that unless this virus is contained it will affect up to 80% of people, at which point there a degree of herd immunity will save the rest.

How could YOUR phone be contaminated if you alone are using it and washing your hands scrupulously? Confused here please help.

Someone at work (school) asked yesterday for wipes and some more soap to be available and was told that "we're not buying into all that hysteria!"

most people wont get it seriously

Talking of which, has anyone seen those disgusting toilets they have in trendy restaurants and some McDonalds? The ones that will not flush unless they are closed? You have to grab the seat and close it. The public loo seat? So you see a mess left over from someone else and you have to reach and close the seat to get rid?

Due to having many autoimmune diseases in my family I subscribe to the 'overly clean' = 'inefficient immune system' paradigm. This is what will slowly kill us in the West; our love of anti-bacterials on everything. But I get the heebies in public toilets and those loos are a really bad idea! I have no idea who invented them or why they exist at all.

Washing hands is important but I agree just putting a hand on the escalator rail inflicts twenty trillion bacteria so moot.

@picklemewalnuts

Imagine unironically linking a private medical center website as an appeal to authority..

We're just going to move this over to the correct topic.

For those concerned about every possibility of contamination, why not wear plastic (sorry Greta) gloves, and change them regularly.

I have to say that I hit the pedestrian light button with my elbow and have done for years, it's just reflex, and pull my cuff down when opening doors. But that's easy. Other than that not much more I can do really.

There’s so much hysteria already on Mumsnet and this is yet another thread!

A lot of people will probably get the virus anyway. The point about handwashing is to slow down the spread of the virus. This will mean more time to study it and hopefully develop a vaccine, or more likely, fewer people will die, as there will be fewer HCPs off sick at the same time, so those who are sick get better care.
Getting into the habit of washing hands before preparing food, or after arriving home from your commute, will help slow the spread.

From someone that works in retail. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP LICKING YOUR FINGERS WHEN TAKING MONEY FROM YOUR PURSE/WALLET! It's disgusting and bloody selfish!!

Contactless - I never carry cash

@OhMargo

You touch a door handle, pick up a virus on your hands, then touch your phone. You use alcohol gel on your hands but your phone still has the virus living on it.

Personally I think it's a good idea to wipe phones with detol at least once a day.

There’s so much hysteria already on Mumsnet and this is yet another thread! I'm not sure it's hysteria when PP has said she has several vulnerable children. Theres always someone who thinks it's cool to be gung ho when for some it's a serious issue.

I agree, I'v always cleaned my phone though and remotes. Unfortunately I do think if anyone in an office gets it they will likely spread it to the whole team. The hand washing is useful after you've been out to the supermarket etc.