are the germs up the arm really that much less toxic or mobile?
How do you get to a tissue in time? I always sneeze really fast.
You’re not touching things with the inside of your elbow, are you? Unless you’re going around putting people in headlocks, but then I guess giving them a cold virus isn’t your biggest concern.
I can’t actually get my elbow up, so I sneeze into the back of the meaty part of my forearm.
Are you assuming that germs contained in droplets of snot or saliva go “airborne” afterwards as it evaporates or something?
Because I don’t think that’s the case.
This, for me. I had never even heard of sneezing into the elbow until the Swine Flu outbreak. It was pointed out, I thought about it, and it made sense to me. So that’s what I do.
Germs aside, I’d just as soon not get someone else’s saliva and snot on me, so I’d rather they not get those things on parts of their body likely to contact things I’m going to touch.
I saw a plumber do this and it has never left me… He sneezed into his hand and rubbed it into his pant leg.
I honestly had never heard of covering it with your hand or your elbow. I was always taught to just point my sneeze away from people. I’ve never had one that made my nose run or anything.
I’d heard of coughing into one’s elbow, but that’s different. It seems to me that trying to block the air will just make the sneeze that much harder, as you’ll keep sneezing until you’ve gotten the irritant out. And you’ll give yourself one pounding of a headache.
You guys already admitted that the germs don’t go airborne, so I’m not sure what the point is. And I find it odd that everyone assumes a sneeze is caused by germs.
I pull my shirt up over my mouth and nose.
This is better than the hand at least, since the droplets vaporize, and then the viruses can’t survive. It’s only a danger if you sneeze onto someone or something. Of course, it’s hard to not actually sneeze onto something.
The Quebec public health authority promotes sneezing into the elbow or upper arm. I started doing it when I was translating lots of stuff for them during the H1N1 outbreak.