— Did you wash your hands when you were little? asked Alex Bennett, co-host. Mean GirlBarstool Sports podcast about sex, relationships and adulthood, during episode released last week.
“I'm sure I did it because I was forced to… but then I made a conscious decision to stop washing my hands, I think, when I was in college,” responded Jordyn Woodruff, co-host of the podcast. In fact, she said that from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., “no hand washing.” (Although she explained that she washes her hands after pooping.)
Woodruff admits the social pressure to wash her hands after using the restroom is so strong that she sometimes fakes it. “Sometimes when my roommates are home, I turn the water on because I don't want them to think I'm disgusting,” Woodruff said.
Forget about roommates, because now a lot of people, including doctors of all stripes are wincing at the fact that these podcasters are debating whether we should wash our hands in 2023—three years into an ongoing pandemic that is still ongoing. killing 2000 people each week.
“I don't really trust people who wash their hands because, first of all, I don't think it really does anything to wash them,” Bennett said, later adding that “[people] They weren’t washed before… and there were fewer diseases.” She said she doesn't like washing her hands because she doesn't like “being wet”; Woodruff added that Bennett also doesn't like to shower.
Even a week later, videos of the nearly three-minute discussion went viral on social media, receiving many comments. shocked And awesome reactions.
The problem isn't that the podcast hosts don't wash their hands after using the restroom (which is obviously a problem in itself). The bigger concern is that they disguise misinformation as fashionable honesty and quirkiness. This can give other people who think and behave the same way a false sense of confidence that what they are doing is normal or safe, said Katherine Zeman, a preventative medicine expert and professor of environmental health at James Madison University.
“For someone to perpetuate a fallacy that would in any way contribute to [the myth that handwashing isn’t important]”I wouldn't want to take that side of the issue,” Zeman said. “Pathogens are incredibly small and can establish themselves anywhere there is a basic environment and the ability to reproduce – and they will do so quite quickly. This is the reason you continue to implement best practices.”
Bennett was right. People often didn't wash their hands “back in the day” but it didn't make them feel any better, not to mention they didn't know any better. In 1860 US life expectancy was only 39 years. In 2020, that number reached 80, thanks in part to significant declines in infant and child mortality rates due to vaccinations, proper sanitation and other public health measures.
In fact, it was in the mid-1800s when a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis first Discovered the importance of hand washing in medical settings—two decades before germ theory, the idea that microorganisms can cause disease, gained popularity.
Semmelweis worked in a maternity hospital in Vienna, which had two clinics, one of which was run by doctors and medical students who began their days autopsying women who died of puerperal fever (or puerperal fever). Without washing their hands, doctors and medical students went to the delivery rooms where vaginal examinations were performed (this was before gloves were widely used in hospitals).
The results were deadly. In 1840–1846, maternal mortality in this clinic was 98.4 per 1000 births. However, in a second clinic staffed by midwives who did not perform autopsies or routine vaginal examinations, the rate was 36.2 per 1,000 births.
After much research, Semmelweis began requiring students to wash their hands with bleach (now called bleach) before going into the maternity ward. Maternal mortality fell to 12.7 per 1,000 births in 1846, comparable to the obstetric clinic rate of the time.
The fact that “we're discussing basic science in 2023… just speaks to our need to solve these problems again and again,” Zeman said.
Hand washing “is the single most important measure to reduce the spread of germs (or germs) from one person to another,” Dr. Sabina Holland, a pediatric infectious disease physician and professor at Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, told BuzzFeed News.
It is estimated that inadequate hand hygiene leads to almost 300,000 deaths worldwide each yearmost of which concern children under 5 years of age. According to the CDC, hand washing can prevent about 30% of diarrhea-related illnesses and about 20% of respiratory infections such as colds and flu. This practice can also help reduce antibiotic resistance (when medications no longer work against certain bacteria), preventing infections that need them in the first place.
Both Woodruff and Bennett said they don't think it's necessary to wash your hands after getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Fair enough, but health experts think differently.
“I wholeheartedly recommend washing your hands every time you go to the toilet, no matter what happens in the bathroom! Hand hygiene reduces the risk of transmitting microorganisms that are transmitted through the fecal-oral route (i.e. from the genitals/bottom to mouth),” Holland wrote in an email. “The time of day doesn’t matter at all.”
Whether you're peeing or pooping, you typically can't leave the bathroom without touching some surfaces. Bacteria and viruses that cause diarrhea and/or vomiting, such as: norovirus, Clostridia difficult (C. diff), E. coli and salmonella like to wait around toilets, sink handles, doorknobs and other places. Other germs, such as adenovirus and hand and foot infections, can also spread in the bathroom.
No matter how diligently you clean your bathroom, flushing the toilet can create an aerosol of certain bacteria that can settle on surfaces. If you touch them and don't wash your hands, you can spread these germs.
(Fun fact: one gram of human feces, which weighs about the same as a paperclip, can contain 1 trillion microbes.)
“Personally, I would rather wash my hands thoroughly than contract any of these infections (and I expect my children and partner to do the same),” Holland said.
Both Woodruff and Bennett also admitted to pretending to wash their hands at work by running the sink after using the restroom.
This message drew a sharp reaction from another podcaster from the Barstool Sports office, Kelly Keags, who published a blog that same day, an episode aired that said she didn't think, “EVERYONE needs confirmation that in this cesspool of an office, our chances of contracting the bubonic plague increase every day.” (Woodruff and Bennett responded to “hate” in their next podcast episode and further social media.)
Keags also admitted that she “talked all sorts of crap about Plan to keep Brie girls from washing their hands. when they released almost the same video as a YEAR ago, but got a pass because at least they knew they were trash bags. Respect.
Unfortunately, Woodruff and Bennett are not the only ones who suffer from this bad habit. A 2020 YouGov poll of more than 24,000 American adults found that 25% wash their hands with soap “most of the time” after visiting the toilet; 10% do this from time to time; and 4% rarely do so. Globally, it is estimated that only 19% of people wash their hands after using the toilet.
If you need a reminder, here are some hand washing tips from the CDC:
- You should always wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, making sure to reach the back of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails. According to Zeman, if you don't have soap, rinsing with water is better than nothing.
- If you don't have access to a sink, you can use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, but you must make sure the sanitizer air-dries on its own. Otherwise it will not be effective. Also note that sanitizer does not kill all types of germs, such as norovirus.
- Always wash your hands before and after preparing food, eating, caring for someone sick, or treating an open wound. Always wash your hands after using the toilet, changing diapers, blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, touching or feeding an animal, or touching trash.
