Does the public, or even some medical professionals, need some basic training?
I've seen people queuing for the supermarket in their gloves, who then drive home in the same gloves. What do they think the gloves are achieving?
There are "contaminated" gloves littering everywhere you look.
I had an emergency appointment at the opticians last week. I was very grateful they opened specially for me and they explained they'd be taking addition precautions. All good. I arrive, knock on the locked door and wait while they put PPE on (gloves and mask). They then open the door to me in the gloves. The verbal part of the consultation was at a good distance, while they, wearing the gloves, made notes using their pen. Then they examined my eyes, touching my eyelids and face with the gloves. Then they wrote more notes with the pen and computer, fetched me some drops and took my payment, all wearing the gloves (but explaining to me that the machine had been wiped down) then showed me out still wearing the gloves. I hope the gloves were changed before the next patient but even so, anything I might have passed on is now all over the pen, computer, door handle etc which they will touch with the next pair of gloves. I'll take my chances, I was desperate to be seen and as a one off the risk is probably low, but if the PPE is there to protect the practitioner, how has it helped?
There are so many examples of where gloves are giving people a sense of security that doesn't exist. DS1, who works in McDonalds, is horrified. Apparently the only way to wear gloves is to have one on one hand. Touch the dirty stuff (raw meat in his case) with he gloved hand and everything else (your pen) with the other hand. Change glove frequently. That makes far more sense to me than what I'm seeing out and about.