Meh, think that’s bad? Once when I was in church, I saw a guy a few pews ahead of me reach down the back of his pants and scratch his ass. Thank god I was nowhere near him – I don’t know what I would have done during the sign of peace!
(The part in Mass where the priest says, “Offer one another the sign of Christ’s peace”, and then everyone shakes hands with those near them and says, “peace be with you.”)
At least you were able to wash your hands after that!
People need to learn to cough into their sleeves and a teacher should keep purell on their desks.
At my son’s school, they have drilled it into their heads to cough in their elbows and they douse the kids in Purell. There are 30 kids in his class, so they can’t line them up to wash hands very often or they’d spend all day doing just that. When he walks in the door from school, he doesn’t even have to be told anymore to go give his hands a good scrub. We’re all in the habit of doing that when we get home from anywhere, especially places like the grocery store. I can’t remember the last time I or the kids had even a cold. My husband did have a mild cold a few weeks ago, but he works in health care and he’s exposed to all sorts of stuff all day long.
During flu season here, the sign of peace has been dropped.
Don’t you worry that you’ll have a poor immune system by not exposing yourself to germs? We’re too sterile. Your immune system gets better by being exposed to germs, not by blocking as much as you can. Then, when you do shake hands with the guy that just peed and didn’t handwash, your body can deal with it.
I understand the need to wash hands and keep your phones and keyboard clean, and to be extra vigilent during cold/flu season, but sanitizing your hands every 30 minutes or opening doors with your elbow is out of control.
That said, I do think the teacher coughing into his hand then offering it for a handshake is not so great, but more for a gross factor then for germs.
In Toronto, the Public Health Department has put up posters (PDF) advising people to cough into their sleeves if they don’t have a tissue handy.
I honestly had no idea. I am an allergy sufferer so I generally have tissues on me, but I swear I haven’t seen anyone doing this in person. Maybe now that I know about it I will start seeing it more.
I wonder if people are going to start routinely carrying around handkerchiefs again. Or are non disposable tissues a bad idea too?
Seriously. It’s not leprosy. You’ll be fine in 3 days or so. Obviously it’s better not to be sick than to be sick, but if you absolutely can’t get sick then go live in a bubble.
I’m not a church goer. Why wouldn’t you continue making this groovy two-fingered gesture during flu season?
I (& my coworkers) got that all the time. This was retail and did involve handling people’s (packaged food). Never mind that the company provided us neither sick pay or health insurance. :mad: Shortly before I left we got an email from corporate reminding sick employees to stay home if the showed flu symptoms. Managers were to “encourage” employees to go home, but couldn’t actually force them for some reason. Intead they were to contact corporate human resources for further advice.
Well, she said it basically is shaking hands.
There’s not enough germ-spreading nowadays, imho.
I agree with you in theory, but then my friend who believes in this for herself and her baby is often sick. Yeah, she building up their immunity, but in the meantime they’re out of commission for days at a time.
Does it really make a difference, though? I mean, I wash my hands after using the bathroom like a normal person, I don’t go around touching strange things that often, and I try to get enough rest and vit-C. I don’t really find myself sick any more or less than anyone else, I don’t think…
And as you join the Good Ship Earth
And you mingle with the dust
You’d better leave your underpants
With someone you can trust
And when the Old Man with the telescope
Cuts the final strand
You’d better lick two fingers clean
Before you shake his hand
I wish we could drop handshaking altogether. I don’t know where your hand has been (well, I do know where it has likely been, and that doesn’t make me want to shake it more). I’m completely down with coughing into your shoulder or elbow, not shaking hands, and frequent handwashing.
There are a couple hundred known viruses that cause the common cold, much less anything else you could pick up. :smack: And believe me, I experienced a whole lot of them during the years I worked in pediatrics - and I didn’t even have direct patient contact! I got them from handling patient charts; the nurse and doctors would scrub up after clinic but I wouldn’t see the sniffling and sneezing, so I wouldn’t think about that when dealing with charts. It seemed like I was always sick.
I’m much healthier now even though I have direct patient contact and care responsibilities - and adopted the appropriate handwashing and other hygiene standards for that position. Plus I’m out of pediatrics. 
Tell the teacher. That’s gross. He should be setting a better example for his students.
Better than sniffing butts.
I think teachers should be required to wear biohazard suits around the little snowflakes. Kids are germ factories.
All kidding aside, I really do worry that my wife, a K-8 school librarian is gonna end up catching the flu from school.