All this hand washing was probably useless – Wel.nl

The prime minister said, we should have washed our hands. The Minister of Health knew we had to sing a song while washing our hands and only stop when the song was over. At the beginning of the pandemic, we thought our lives depended on washing hands and not touching shopping carts that had not been disinfected.

We didn’t know anything better then. But now it is. We now know that the virus rarely spreads through the surface, especially through the air.

We’ve come to understand the gravity of indoor spaces, the importance of ventilation, and the difference between a cloth mask and an N95. In the meantime, we usually stop talking about hand washing. The times when you could hear people’s “I wish he lived” voices in public bathrooms soon disappeared. Packed wipes and lavish workplace disinfection protocols have faded, although bottles of sanitizer are still found in many places.

If hand washing isn’t as important as we thought in March 2020, how important is it, ask The Atlantic.

Any public health expert will tell you that you still need to wash your hands. Emmanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, considers “hygiene” to protect us from a range of viruses spread through close contact and touch, such as gastrointestinal viruses.

However, the pandemic has provided evidence that transmission of the coronavirus – that is, contaminated non-living objects or surfaces – plays a much smaller role, and that transmission of the virus through the air plays a much larger role than we thought. The same is likely true for other respiratory diseases, such as flu Coronaviruses that cause the common cold, said Lynsey Marr, an environmental engineer and aerosol expert at Virginia Tech.

Goldman will present a groundbreaking study in December showing that the surface spread of Covid is negligible and likely responsible for less than 0.01 percent of all infections. If true, then the chances of catching the flu or a cold from touching something are virtually non-existent.

The scientific discussion isn’t over yet, but if you forget to wash your hands when you leave the store, there’s probably not much danger.