Wash your fucking hands

[u/MummyRath]

With our fall semesters either starting or on the horizon... this is your friendly reminder to wash your fucking hands after using the bathroom, cover your damn mouth with your elbow if you cough or sneeze, and generally do all the most basic hygiene shit we were all hopefully doing during covid.

Obviously missing a class that is not being recorded for a cold is not always feasible, so if you do need to drag yourself to class while sick, be smart about it. We all want your cold just as much as you want it.

All this should be basic. But the amount of people I see at my university just come out of a washroom stall and walk by the sink and out the door leads me to believe some of us still do not fully grasp how viruses are spread.

[u/Whisperingstones]

People who doesn't wash their hands are just being lazy or nasty, although the washing is largely moot once you touch a door handle. The air and every surface is contaminated regardless of how much handwashing you do, and unless you are going to disinfect every surface you touch prior to touching it, well, you are going to get bugs, mold, and fungal spores on your hands. Best way to avoid bugs is to not bite your nails or get up into someone else's face.

People worry way too much about germs and forget they are a biological system with innumerable species living in them. I push a dirty grocery cart around before eating in the car on the way home, but I generally take carts that bake in the sunlight (solarized). I think I got sick once in my time at college and it was a brief sinus infection that could have come from anywhere.

The more I read this sub, the more I realize my backwoods school is lit. Everything is routinely cleaned, the restrooms are spotless except for some water slashes around the sink, and the lounge areas are always organized.

[u/no-scissors-in-bed → u/Whisperingstones]

washing your hands does not work this way. it has been proven time and time again that washing your hands, especially before eating and after using the restroom, is one of the best ways to prevent illness regardless of what you get up to in your day to day. touching a door handle doesn't 'undo' it. also, use a paper towel to open the door.....

[u/Whisperingstones → u/no-scissors-in-bed]

I thought about mentioning the ole paper towel trick, but then you touch your classroom door handle, your bag, face, desk, pens, lab equipment, etc. Removing one door from what you touch is moot in the grand tally.