Can we stop the "hygiene theatre"?

[Hamilbamil]

It's been said for a long time that the chances of transmission from surface contact and extremely small. I've copied an extract from a BBC article today below providing further details.

With this in mind, shouldn't we rein back on the "hygiene theatre" that has become part of daily life in so many places. In particular schools where, despite being in close proximity and massless all day, pupils and teachers spend an entirely disproportionate amount of time washing and sanitising. This isn't merely harmless activity, but actively reduces the amount of education our children are receiving as significant time is wasted carrying out these elaborate rituals.... all to give the false impression of being "Covid-safe".

Enough... Of course hygiene is good, but there's no excuse now to get back to normality in this area.

"At the start of the pandemic, a lot of focus was on surfaces. People washed groceries and avoided touching buttons at pedestrian crossings. Councils shut playgrounds and cordoned off park benches.Yet it's been all but impossible to find an outbreak linked to an infected surface. "It's to do with how the virus actually enters your system - it's* through the airways," says Dr Eilir Hughes, a GP and campaigner for more protective PPE for NHS staff.The virus takes hold in the body via the respiratory system - that's why testing for it involves a swab up the nose and down the back of the throat. It would take an extremely unlikely chain of events for infected droplets on an object to end up in someone's nose or throat. Hygiene is important, but washing hands and surfaces excessively, and avoiding touching objects - so-called "hygiene theatre" - has little impact on the spread of Covid."*

I just say “no thank you” and keep going.

Went to a castle the other day for our first day out in I don’t know how long. Signs everywhere to stay 2m apart (which people did). Masks inside the castle but we were mostly outside in the open air. Massive vats of sanitiser everywhere. Required to leave details for test and trace. But the ticket lady took my phone off me to look T my e ticket after doing the same for everyone in the queue. I know it doesn’t really spread on surfaces, but I do put my phone right next to my mouth!

Oh god the quarantining of everything in school . To be fair I always assumed they have to follow some nonsensical DfE guidance in their risk assessment, but it is bonkers. The books thing is driving me up the wall. I've told my DCs only to use soap if they've been to the toilet, all the constant hand washing was making their hands raw and bleeding.

Oh yes, it's so irritating. The drippy shop signage especially.

'Let's stay safe together'

bleurgh

Let's not, eh?

@Cripesitsthegasman19

I don't like the way you are forced to use that rank hand sanitizer on the way into John Lewis. They have someone on the door squirting it into your hands and it goes everywhere. I'm also fed up with being 'kept safe. Safe from what? Utter bullshit.

Does yours have a human doing it? My JL has those foot-operated ones. It squirts at funny angles, and goes all over the floor like a very hygienic lube slick.

Glad to see the dirty bastards of the uk are out in force.

I'm glad that schools are taking hygiene seriously especially hand washing and cleaning desks and loos. I hate to think how many hours/days of education are lost due to the cesspit of bugs schools normally are

Hand washing is basic of preventing transmission. School ditched the mask, now they should ditch the hand sanitizing too? I don't think so, at least not for while.

@niceupthedance

Glad to see the dirty bastards of the uk are out in force.

I'm glad that schools are taking hygiene seriously especially hand washing and cleaning desks and loos. I hate to think how many hours/days of education are lost due to the cesspit of bugs schools normally are

There is a big difference between good, sensible hygiene and the current lunacy.

@niceupthedance

Glad to see the dirty bastards of the uk are out in force.

I'm glad that schools are taking hygiene seriously especially hand washing and cleaning desks and loos. I hate to think how many hours/days of education are lost due to the cesspit of bugs schools normally are

You can be neurotic on your own time thanks.

I hope it doesn't end.

Because it's a really good preventative measure against so many pathogens -noro and e-coli spring to mind, but I bet there are plenty of others

My Reception child hasn’t had a reading book home the whole year, because of Covid & the contamination of books going between home & school

@UnmentionedElephantDildo alcohol gel doesn't work on norovirus.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo

I hope it doesn't end.

Because it's a really good preventative measure against so many pathogens -noro and e-coli spring to mind, but I bet there are plenty of others

I've no problem with promoting good hygiene, and washing hands after going to the toilet and before meals - though that's preventing other stuff more than Covid is seems - but what's happening in many places is grossly excessive, and in many cases, ridiculous.

Sanitising to the point hands become cracks and painful; spending so much time cleansing that it takes away from learning time; teachers wiping down tables legs and walls every evening; quarantining books for 72 hours; spending the budget on regular deep cleans at the expense of school kit;..... that's what I'm talking about!

... and also doesn't work for EColi and lots of other nasties www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2019/08/12/sfl-hw-9-things-alcohol-based-hand-sanitizers-dont-kill/#.YMJhM-R4WEc

@Hamilbamil

How many thousands hours of education have been wasted by this pointless pursuit i wonder... at a time when children's education has already been affected so badly.

My daughter shouldn't be coming home with cracked hands "for show".

Me and my 10yo dd actually worked this out....her class takes 10mins a time, 5 times a day for handwashing. So an hour a day 5 days a week. A WHOLE DAY OF LEARNING is spent washing hands every week. I despair.

It's like we've got collective OCD and are now inculcating it in our children

Those mentioning noro, I use Sterizar.

@roguetomato

Hand washing is basic of preventing transmission. School ditched the mask, now they should ditch the hand sanitizing too? I don't think so, at least not for while.

Ditching masks whilst quarantining books for 72 hours and wiping down the walls daily is like a diabetic tucking into a massive slice of cheesecake whilst panicking about the sugar content of a piece of chicken.

I agree. When will this end it is pathetic and completely useless, time wasting nonsense!

It would be interesting to know what different spraying and wiping your shopping trolley makes.

I'm just back from a city centre shopping trip where I noticed there was nobody insisting we sanitised our hands on the way into shops so hopefully it's on the way out?
I must admit to a bit of fake sanitising previously when one shop insisted I use it even though I'd had to use it coming out of the shop before. No I'm not having 2 applications of hand sanitizer in 1 minute!
Also managed to walk straight into a pub today after just checking in with the Covid app, we could sit where we liked & it felt lovely, not at all 'unsafe.
Roll on the end of most of these ridiculous restrictions.

@sociallydistained

I agree. When will this end it is pathetic and completely useless, time wasting nonsense!

It will end when there's more people who are fed up with it and less people demanding it happens and taking to social media/the media to complain about the places it hasn't been happening.

Oh and although I completely disagree with removing hand washing etc I agree that over doing it needs to end.

But it should be a hygiene practice we all improve on.

I totally agree it's stupidity with no bags, lunchboxes, soft furnishings or reading books etc.

I differentiate surfaces and hand washing.

I was told off at a supermarket for not wearing the supplied gloves to handle tongs. I said I'd sanitised my hands so surely that's enough? Nope, apparently not. Logic suggests that if you put on a glove you've handled the exterior of that glove with unwashed hands, therefore the glove is not as clean as a sanitised hand.

Fucking ridiculous!

I'm not complaining. Mainly because diarrhoea and vomiting incidences have plummeted in the time, as have things like shingles, chickenpox and all other common and easily transmissible diseases that usually sweep through 1500 kids and staff like wildfire. So it is working in preventing a huge number of infections.

But also I don't mind it because I see men in the gym stopping to clean their arse and back sweat off the equipment when that was always a rarity before Covid.