End the hygiene theater, CDC says

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Last edited Tue Apr 6, 2021, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

It’s time to unplug the sanitizing robots and put away the bottles of Clorox that seem to line the entrances to every school, restaurant and supermarket wanting to advertise its safety protocols. While such protocols may be reassuring to an anxious populace, they are not necessary, says a revised guidance issued on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low,” the new CDC guidance says, estimating that the chance of contracting the coronavirus through surface transmission is lower than 1 in 10,000.

The coronavirus is spread almost exclusively by airborne and aerosolized particles, as scientists have known for months. Despite scientists’ growing certitude about how the pathogen is transmitted, many establishments have continued to insist on strict sanitization protocols. In some school districts, for example, classrooms close for full-day “deep cleaning.”

The persistence of such practices has led to the advent of a derisive term — “hygiene theater” — to describe rituals that appear to do little to stop the virus from spreading. It is not clear if the CDC’s new guidance will lower the curtain on those theatrics, given how entrenched some of those practices have become.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/end-the-hygiene-theater-cdc-says-173440864.html

Chance of contracting COVID-19 from surfaces nearly zero: CDC

You can stop scouring stores for disinfectant wipes. They won’t save you from COVID.

The chances of being infected with the novel coronavirus and getting COVID-19 via surfaces — that is, touching a surface with active virus on it, then touching your face — is only about one in 10,000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance issued Monday.

“It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low,” the CDC said, emphasizing the ease of transmission via airborne respiratory droplets.

Moreover, scrubbing with soap and water is sufficient in “most situations” on everyday household surfaces, due to the structure of the virus.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/chance-of-contracting-covid-19-from-surfaces-nearly-zero-cdc/ar-BB1flTMo?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnb7Kz

[SoonerPride]

1. It may not be needed for COVID, but I am thankful places are actually CLEANING

It just made me painfully aware of how filthy almost all public spaces were pre-covid.

So while it may seem "performative theater" in regards to covid, it most certainly is not worthless.

I say keep it up.

Please clean doorknobs, and kids' desks, and restaurants more thoroughly than in the past.

We may have a healthier society if our public spaces are cleaner.

[GoCubsGo]

6. Exactly right. Lots of other diseases get spread via surfaces.

Large swaths of people don't even wash their hands after using the restroom. Then, they go out in public and touch everything. Ick. Or, god knows what else they might have been handling before they set their hands on a shopping cart. I always wiped down my shopping carts before the pandemic, as well as my car post-shopping. Not going to stop now. Then there are the numerous members of our local equestrian community, who like to come into the grocery stores in their riding boots, tracking horse shit all over the place...

[USALiberal]

27. I'm not worried about it. Nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. For sure, shut it down, since COVID-19 is the only infectious disease that exists ...

This headline is also fucking bullshit. That's not what the CDC said.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. I Lean Your Way

That said, I get the "theater" aspect.
Once they went to full days, I went back to subbing in the middle school in a town of 15,000 west of us.
When the 7th graders were in PE, guy came to the rooms with this "cleaning gun". Heat & uV emitted.
Yet, that school had by far, the most kids wearing their masks wrong.
It's obvious that they have not been corrected when their noses show, because it was 40% of the kids.
I'm VERY strict about that, and rather than singling out, I'd just say " HEY, EVERYBODY!". Then point to my nose.
They all complied, but I could tell they weren't used to being reminded.
So, they're sloppy about airborne but deep cleaning in the middle of the day.
Seemed like it was for show.
But, schools around here have zero intention of reducing mask requirements. And they shouldn't.
One thing confirming your sentiment is the paucity of flu cases this year. Keeping surfaces clean & wearing masks just had to have an effect of the flu virus.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. Agree ...

However I'm always annoyed by publications taking blatant liberties like this:

"End the hygiene theater, CDC says"

That's BS, it's not what they said.

[Hugin]

9. Ahhh... The refreshing cooling breeze of pure uncut...

Nice, Hugh_Lebowski. Well done.

Washing hands frequently and other precautions are still advised.

I've been considering what cleanings I'm going to reduce after I've gotten sufficiently vaccinated and the all clear seems immanent.

Most. Except the outside of beverage containers (which, I've always done) and the new addition of wiping off the outside of frozen goods. Those things have every little swab of crap they've picked up during the entire shipping and handling process.

Your best point, however. The COVID virus is not the only disease out there. Not by a long shot.

[soothsayer]

5. I like hand sanitizer and hope it stays handy

[Ms. Toad]

7. Influenza is at the lowest number of cases in decades

And influenza is one of those things that are passed by fomites. I've been protecting myself from influenza for a dozen years by a version of this "hygiene theater."

So - to the extent it reminds people to wash their hands and not touch high contact surfaces - it's a net positive.

[KT2000]

13. Agree

When I saw that Costco had placed hand sanitizers throughout their store I thought it was so thoughtful for them to do that. I saw where the rates of flu were way down and I wonder about rates of colds. My friend thought she had a cold and a month later she tested positive for Covid antibodies while she was in the hospital with long haul complications.

I just checked out at the store and before I got to the counter, the clerk did a long nose blow. I immediately used my own sanitizer. That was not "theater," that was smart IMHO.

[meadowlander]

21. It's gone almost extinct in New Zealand.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018767843/near-extinction-of-influenza-in-nz-as-numbers-drop-due-to-lockdown

Imagine how many diseases we could completely eradicate if we all just stayed home for six weeks. It will never happen because people are idiots but such a small effort would save millions of lives and increase productivity enormously.

[LisaL]

8. There is nothing wrong with cleaning.

Even if it won't protect you from covid.

[Raine]

10. Changing their mind on things ... AGAIN. nt 🙄

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Right. This nonsense of sanitizing everything should have ended six months ago.

And no, I do not feel remotely reassured by such nonsense.

[abqtommy]

12. I appreciate the effort that the CDC went to in offering us their wisdom. But I've been

sanitizing for over a year now without getting Covid, Dengue Fever or Ebola so I think
I'll just keep it up.

[Hekate]

14. Did the CDC actually use the term "hygiene theater"? That doen't seem like them, somehow. nt

[LisaL]

24. CDC didn't use the term.

NT

[W_HAMILTON]

15. This is confusing to me.

I assume they still want us to wash/sanitize our hands, don't touch our eyes, etc., but if I can't get COVID from touching things, how can COVID get on my hands to get into my eyes? Are they saying that the "airborne and aerosolized particles" can get on my hands and thus infect me if I touch my eyes, but they can't get on a surface that I subsequently touch and then infect me if I touch my eyes?

I don't get the rationale here...

[Sympthsical]

16. I kind of want to keep the mask after this is over

I haven't had so much as a cold since the advent of COVID. Was talking with my partner, and he realized he hadn't been sick in over a year either. Makes a nice change. I haven't had anything serious like the flu in years and years, but I'd usually get a cold once a winter, just because I'm around co-workers who just adore coming in sick (my company has liberal PTO policies with illness. They just want to save days up). Newp. No cold this year. No illness of any kind.

I hope we go full Asia about it. Just general social acceptance of wearing masks about. I'm so used to masking out of muscle memory, I almost don't notice I'm doing it. Never give it a thought.

[Scrivener7]

17. This is the same CDC that said we shouldn't mask and if we just washed our hands all would be well.

"Hygiene theater" is a stupid term, probably stemming from Rand Paul's idiotic statement. It's not theatrics. It's people following previous CDC guidelines.

I still swipe grocery carts, etc, with a Clorox wipe and plan to continue doing so.

[Wingus Dingus]

20. Yup. Same people that told us not to worry about masks last spring.

Note to CDC: calling one of your previous recommendations "theater" really undermines what's left of your credibility. I'll keep using my sanitizer and wipes.

[Deminpenn]

22. That was because CDC was worried early on there would not be

enough masks for hospital/healtcare workers/first responders.

[Scrivener7]

28. Yes, but they should have said THAT and not lied to us. They kept a possible preventive action

from us during the days when the death rate was sky high and there were no treatments.

I would have worn a few scarves or made some cloth masks. I would have found a way that wouldn't have taken any from first responders.

They should have said masking helped and then shouted at the government to procure or manufacture more masks.

I know everyone is saying the CDC is great, but I think they did a shit job in this. Between telling us things they knew were not true and bowing time and again to Donny Bodybags, and not telling the press what it needed to hear, I am not impressed.

[Scrivener7]

25. They didn't. The CDC press release says nothing about theater. Rand Paul said "theater" and I

wonder if Yahoo is just trying to turn it into the smug catch phrase du jour.

But the CDC's new recommendation not to worry about surfaces is not one I will follow. They say the chances are low. A low chance is enough for me to swipe things before I use them.

PS: I loved your old name, but I get why you changed it. Love the new one too!

[Wingus Dingus]

32. Ha ha, thanks about my old name, I didn't want to be

tied to Melania forever--guess I should have thought of that from the git-go... Edit--see you changed yours too, I like it, will make a mental note

[hunter]

18. I haven't had any kind of cold or flu for more than a year now.

It's one positive aspect of this "hygiene theater."

[Silent3]

19. Maybe this "theater" is one of the reasons the flu dropped to practically zero.

It might not being helping very much preventing COVID transmission, but that doesn't mean it's not helping public health in general.

[USALiberal]

29. No, because of lockdown! Nt

[Silent3]

30. What's being called "theater" here is a part of the lockdown...

...so I don't know what distinction you're trying to make. I'm speculating that maybe that the attention to fomites during the lockdown, while possibly mostly wasted effort for COVID itself, was perhaps helpful in reducing the spread of flu.

[Deminpenn]

23. To me, keeping a sensible distance from others is the most

important preventative. That doesn't mean staying home and never interacting with anyone in person. Just keeping a reasonable distance of an arm's length or so. That philosophy has kept me cold and flu-free for years even when others like family, friends, colleagues, around me have been sick.

[RandiFan1290]

26. I hear CDC PSAs every day on the radio.

I did notice a few weeks back that they removed the handwashing suggestion from the commercials.

[apnu]

31. But the 'theater' helps stop other pathogens.

Non-COVID infectious diseases are at an all time low because many people are practicing good hygiene, keeping distant and masking.