The Village Square

In a speech to schoolchildren last week that had some conservative opponents up in arms, President Obama delivered at least one line that seemed incontestable: "I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter." The Disney corporation is now marketing Musical Hand Wash Timers featuring characters like the Little Mermaid, and encouraging parents to "take precaution against swine flu" by teaching children to wash their hands correctly. "Studies prove that regular hand-washing dramatically reduces the spread of infection," says the Disney Web page, which links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.

Thanks in part to this and other campaigns run by the CDC, it has become conventional wisdom that hand-washing is the best way to protect yourself from the H1N1 strain of influenza. But while hand-washing has been shown to be a great defense against the common cold and other respiratory diseases, it might not actually be that helpful against the influenza virus, including the H1N1 strain.

That's because there is virtually no evidence that people can catch the influenza virus from germs that they pick up on their hands, according to Arthur Reingold, head of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, and codirector of the CDC-funded California Emerging Infections Program. Instead, humans are most likely to catch influenza by breathing in microscopic particles exhaled by infected people.

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/215435


I took precautions and bought several surgical masks just in case I have to be in an invironment such as hospital emergency room or clinics where people are coughing and hacking.  You might want to do the same.  Can get at any medical supply store for less than .25 a piece.  Mine were .17 each.