There was a minor to-do in the news the other day when Kathleen Sebelius, Secreatary for Health and Human Services, told a reporter at a press conference that he had sneezed wrong. Swine Flu, you know.
HHS is telling people to instead sneeze into the crook of the elbow. They even recruited a Muppet to get the word out (Elmo, not Sebelius). I’ve heard this suggestion before from a few germophobes, and I’m going to challenge it.
If you sneeze into your hands, you can wash them. But who is going to wash the crook of their elbow during the day? Seems to me the germs would be more likely to stay around, especially if a person is wearing long sleeves. Wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage people to just wash their hands after sneezing?
Not sure how “great” a debate this is. Mods, feel free to move to GQ if you see fit.
Well, putting aside the propriety of Secretary Selbelius lecturing somebody on sneezing, it’s true that you generally wash your hands more often than you wash your elbow. But, people generally touch more things, and other people, with their hands than their elbows. So, while you’re got the germs and snot on your elbow for longer, you’ve got less of a chance of getting your germs and snot on other people.
While it makes more sense to me to sneeze into your hands and then wash, if one has the flu and is sneezing quite a bit, is it practical to expect them to get up to go to the bathroom over and over? So while maybe not perfect, sneezing into the elbow might in the long run be more effective.
While it may not be an option for women with low cut shirts I always found up lifting the collar of my t-shirt and sneezing into there worked pretty well.
Edit: To clarify, I mean actually lifting the collar up to cover my nose, not just pulling it out and hoping it catches all of it.
If you sneeze into your hands, even if you go right away to wash them, you still have to touch at least one door on the way, and possibly more items than that to do so. If you sneeze on your elbow you don’t have to worry about spreading your germs on everything you touch on the way to the restroom. I have bad allergies, and I sneeze quite a bit and I always do into the crook of my arm if no other direction is available.
Or, just do like **Jragon *said and sneeze into some conveniently placed cleavage.
*poster may have reading comprehension difficulties.
While the opening post mentions only sneezing, the common advice about the crook of the elbow is for both sneezing and coughing. Most people don’t go wash their hands every time they cough.
Sneezing or coughing into your hands adds complexity because it is two steps rather than one. Sneeze into your hands, then go wash your hands, compared to just sneezing into your arm. Particularly since things like the flu and colds are spread quite a bit by children, who often have a tendency not to wash their hands in a situation where most adults would wash, it seems likely to me that sneezing and coughing into the crook of your elbow is much more effective. I assume the advice is also based on statistics for the effectiveness of each method since hospitals and doctors’ offices often have signs up these days that show the “proper” way to cough or sneeze, but that may be a bad assumption.
There are also plenty of situations where you can’t wash your hands. Unless you have sanitary wipes or lotions, how do you wash your hands in your car, on the bus, a train, subway, at a job where you can’t stop every 20 minutes to wash your hands, etc?