Washing of hands

Grumpy woman mode here:

Unless one has lived in a cave for the past fortnight, its been mentioned on the news that our hospitals are at bursting point due to influenza, Covid, Norovirus and RSV.

Many doctors and health care specialists are ‘asking us politely’ to have our jabs if we’re eligible. But better still the easiest thing is to thoroughly wash our hands (sanitiser will work for flu, covid and RSV but not Norovirus). Also use tissues and throw away and cough into a tissue or onto your sleeve (not into hands).

I’m fed up of seeing people leaving a public loo without hand washing, or not washing before preparing food etc. Coughing (often into someone elses face). They have learnt nothing from the pandemic.

I sat beside someone on a flight 2-3 weeks ago, and they coughed constantly, throughout the whole flight. It really made me uneasy and irritated. I know that many people are very anti-mask. But sometimes I wish Europeans had the same polite consideration for others as the Japanese, and wear a mask if they are going to cough repeatedly in an enclosed space.

The first thing I did when I got off that plane was wash my hands!

Indeed we all seem to have forgotten the basics IMO.

Let us not forget – there are more vulnerable people than you around.

In October, mrs_oab was nearly killed by someone coming to our house while ‘feeling a bit unwell’ and not saying anything. Cue covid and a near death experience, one which has changed mrs_oab’s already fragile health permanently, so much so she is having to take retirement under grounds of ill health and is unlikely to head up a Munro or ride long distances again.

So if you are ill, stay away from others.

People have some disgusting habits. Service stations are the worse place to observe peoples bad habits! I’ve seen people coming out of the loo (after having a dump) and not wash their hands, people spitting at the entrance. Awful.

There is absolutely no excuse not to wash your hands. It’ basics, real basics. God knows what else they don’t do?!

@bunnyhop – peoples memories are short, they never remember and just return to the same old patterns of behaviour. As a species we learn very little.

@mattoutandabout – absolutely, i can’t agree with you more on this! It’s selfish to coughing and spluttering over other people. Again, basics and consideration.

As i get my shopping on the bike, i leave my gloves on when in the supermarket. Not sure if it actually help a great deal

Good point and the good news is that the world’s most famous germaphobe will be leading the free world again next month :

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/07/donald-trump-germaphobe-1399258

He asks visitors if they’d like to wash their hands in a bathroom near the Oval Office.

Two and a half years into his term, President Donald Trump is solidifying his standing as the most germ-conscious man to ever lead the free world. 

You don’t need to convince Donald Trump to wash his hands!

Although luckily for him his hands are so tiny that the whole process is completed very quickly.

People are just dirty, and always have been.

People that don’t wash their hands after using the toilet in a supermarket before doing their shop deserve a special place in hell.

Went to That London for the day last week and met up with a colleague from the Birmingham office – I knew she’d complained of a heavy cold and sounded rotten on Teams calls the week before, but she turned up still sounding like crap and I overheard her tell someone else she’d been ill for a fortnight then, sotto voce, that she couldn’t taste anything either. She even admitted she didn’t need to be there – that’s a completely uneccessary return trip on the train and underground she’s been unmasked and spreading her germs, she even went for a hug at the end of the day (I declined and went for a fistbump, then legged it before she jumped in the same lift). Made me quite angry – I’m jabbed and naturally immunised, but who could I pass it on to? Two negative covid tests since and no sign of a cold so I think I’m ok, but she messaged today to say her mum now has it. SO thoughtless.

public loos are a biohazard, i always use paper towel to open the door (or touch anything to be fair) in them. men are pigs.

Yep! People are disgusting!

And all that we went through with the pandamic, all the trauma, distruption etc. All you have to do is wash your bloody hands, please!

I’m an office based germaphobe. Sharing an office with a hundred folk, many of whom seem to have an aversion to the most basic hygiene. It is challenging!

Some people, they shit and go. They shit….and they just go, no hand washing. This just totally blows my mind! I have a blacklist in my head, of people I dislike, these shit’n’go’s are automatically on the list, no matter how nice they are.

Japanese, and wear a mask if they are going to cough repeatedly in an enclosed space.

Just finished re- watching around the world in 80 days. It was filmed in 1988 and the underground scenes in Tokyo showed several people warning masks. Its been part of the culture for a very long time.

always use paper towel to open the door (or touch anything to be fair)

Does anyone ever ask you why you are holding it in a paper towel?

You know the urinal small talk stuff.

It did improve massively in COVID, but yes gone disgustingly bad now

The amount of men you see coming out of cubicles having had a dump and not washing their hands is disgusting

Alan shows us the way:

Always out the lid down before flushing a number two. I don’t like inhaling aerosols. My grandfather said in the navy you washed your hands before going to the toilet. With alcohol gel on ready supply, there’s no excuse.

Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.

Theres always one in any male group who sits next to you in the pub, coughs all over everyone and then calmly tells you all that he has “felt like sh1t for days” then looks for bloody sympathy.

Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.

Do please tell me your rationale for not having basic hygiene.

Unless, as I suspect, you are a troll.

Same on trains.

If it’s not some absolute bellend watching videos or listening to music on their phone without headphones, it’s someone sitting there hacking and coughing away.

Offices have reverted to the old “oh well I feel like shit but I’m coming in anyway” and then they spend all day at their desk downing Lemsip and looking for sympathy. WFH or take a day off sick you absolute tool!

I’m proud to be a Covid Karen, but, it’s the NHS staff who are asking us to do this, I wonder why?

It’s  to help others and look after everybody.
what a flippin’ selfish world some of us live in.

whoops I answered to one of the trolls, how silly of me.

Although luckily for him his hands are so tiny that the whole process is completed very quickly.

Made me chuckle! Thanks Ernie.

Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.

Anyone know of a village missing an idiot?

Meh, bit of dirt never hurt anyone 😉

(I do wash my hands after going to the loo)

looking at the state of the floor in that photo, did the previous occupant mistake it for the loo?

Anecdotal evidence with a sample of one person incoming.

Whenever I get ill, my partner invariable does too. She sees it as inevitable so we don’t really change much around the house if one of us is unwell (usually me first, I’m the one that goes to places where it is more likely!).

This time around I started feeling rough the same day Mrs Rikks mum was taken to hospital – so I knew she would be going in to see a vulnerable person. I went what felt like very overboard. Coughing and sneezing into tissues always. Hands and face washed every hour or so in hot water with proper anti bac soap. Twice daily wipe of surfaces that were used regularly as well as handles etc. Minimal actual contact or proximity.

It worked.I probably didn’t need to go quite so overboard but she’s already got limited time left with her mum so I didn’t really want to have anything reduce that further.

The thing I don’t understand about public toilets is that I can wash and dry my hands all I like but in 90% of cases the fact that the door from the loos to the outside world opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape, a handle which could easily have been recently used by a dump and go merchant.  I assume it is something to do with a design requirement not to have a door opening into a public area, but as a user it does feel like I am undoing my own good practice.

I find that my intense glare forces people coming out of toilet cubicles to wash their hands.

The secret is to maintain eye contact.

requires me to have to grab a handle to escape

I loiter by the door until someone comes in, then I make my bid to escape before the door slams shut.

Which is why I much prefer busy toilets.

You be horrified when you read this then.. ‘microbial cloud‘

[door] opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape, a handle which could easily have been recently used by a dump and go merchant

Really? I just grab a dry hand towel, a couple of sheets of toilet paper, or at worst use my sleeve

I loiter by the door until someone comes in

After staring at everyone coming out of the traps… you know were talking about toilet hygiene not cottaging? ;D

the fact that the door from the loos to the outside world opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape

This has bothered me for years! Fellow germaphobes!

I have a strong little finger. The little finger is used for pulling the door, only.

Also you need to think, most people grab it about there, go higher where msot people don’t touch.

The secret is to maintain eye contact.

I’m not hanging around the gents and maintaining eye contact!

Totally agree—basic hygiene seems to have been forgotten by some! It’s frustrating seeing people skip something as simple as washing their hands, especially when we know how much it helps. If everyone made a little effort, like coughing into a sleeve or using tissues, we could ease the pressure on hospitals and protect each other. It’s not hard, people—let’s step it up!

So the place we had our Christmas briefing / night out had an issue with the water so we had portaloos,  someone at the start of it, while sober had pissed up the wall of one of the loos ….. Why why why?

I’ve worked with a lot of filthy folks from all sections of society.

Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.

Another dirty git for the list.

I loiter by the door until someone comes in, then I make my bid to escape before the door slams shut.

Do you wear a facemask when you’re driving the car alone, by any chance?

Another dirty git for the list.

Plus 4 more who liked the post?

My son came back from a week away recently. He and his mates had come down with something. Daughter and wife caught it, but I managed to avoid it (out at work more).  I work at a Uni, and the ladies toilets are often a mess (according to colleagues) despite the regular cleaning from our cleaners. Plenty of females are pretty grim.  No such problem in the gents, other than the occasional no flush of pee.

How many of you ride with a bottle on your bike when riding off-road? Most of my rides will at some point be on land with livestock grazing on it or where there are loads of dog walkers, I must admit to find it baffling that anyone would think that it is a good idea to drink from a bottle that is more often than not in the direct line of fire from your front wheel.

How many of you ride with a bottle on your bike when riding off-road? Most of my rides will at some point be on land with livestock grazing on it or where there are loads of dog walkers, I must admit to find it baffling that anyone would think that it is a good idea to drink from a bottle that is more often than not in the direct line of fire from your front wheel.

Many years ago…

A group of us from the cycle club went down to Dartmoor for a long weekend of MTBing. One of the guys had a cottage down there. Weather wasn’t great so lots of splashy, muddy, gritty trails. On the second day, one of the guys came down seriously ill, really violently sick. We were genuinely very concerned for him but it wasn’t food posioning cos we’d all eaten the same meals and we were fine.

No more riding for him but when he got home, he washed his bike, bottles etc and found a lump of cow/sheep shit wedged in the mouthpiece. Mystery solved. Also, massive eeewwwwwww.

Do you wear a facemask when you’re driving the car alone, by any chance?

Standard protocol if anyone else is likely to get into the car at any reasonably immediate point in time.

 I have a blacklist in my head

I think you’ll find that’s a brown list…

Animal germs are fine – never had an issue with my animal pee and poo covered bottles.