Only 5% of People Wash Their Hands Properly
Misconceptions about hand-washing are as rampant as the germs themselves
When a highly contagious stomach virus blew through a Colorado school district in November, sickening 30% of students and 20% of staff at one high school, some of the victims felt fine one hour and were vomiting in public the next. It was a reminder of how quickly viruses can make a lot of lives miserable. Especially during winter months. And especially when people don’t wash their hands often and properly.
Health experts agree that hand-washing is a vital defense against stomach-turning viruses, deadly bacteria, and other communicable germs including the flu, the common cold, and the particularly nasty norovirus thought to be the cause of the Colorado outbreak.
But there are several misconceptions regarding what works and what doesn’t and research finds most people just don’t get it. The key, science shows, is to wash the old-fashioned way, with soap and water and lots of scrubbing bubbles. And do it often, because the germs are everywhere. A quarter-teaspoon of infected diarrhea can have 5 billion norovirus particles, but it only takes 20 of them — which can fit on the head of a pin — to infect you.
