A nurse has used paint to show how fast germs can be spread during the coronavirus crisis – even if you’re wearing gloves for protection.
Nurse Molly Lixey, from Michigan, says she wanted to make a video after seeing a lot of people out in public wearing gloves.
She says if you choose to wear gloves that’s ‘all fine and well’ but she warned of the dangers of cross-contamination, resulting in many well-meaning people unintentionally exposing themselves to bacteria.
Putting on a pair of medical gloves, she reenacts a visit to the supermarket, wiping her trolley down with disinfectant to reduce the risk of picking up germs from previous shoppers at the start.
As she pretends to reach for toilet paper, she dips her hand into a plate of green paint, representing the germs, which have now been transferred from a product in the shop onto her glove.
Molly says “but it’s on my glove, that’s fine, right?” before carrying on with her imaginary shop, touching her hands together a couple of times, spreading the paint onto both gloves.
She then uses a piece of paper to act out replying to a text message her husband sent and quickly brushing an itch on her nose, leaving green paint on both.
As the nurse ‘answers’ the phone to her mum, she transfers the paint from the phone screen onto her cheek, saying: “Oh my goodness, look at all this bacteria.
“But it’s totally fine, I have my gloves on, I’m so safe in my gloves, right?”
When she has finished her fake shop, she returns to her car and disposes of her gloves correctly, but as soon as she touches her phone again she demonstrates how the protective gloves have been pointless.
Showing the germs now on her hands, which can easily be spread to everything she touches when she gets home, Molly explains: “This is called cross-contamination.
“There’s no point in wearing gloves if you’re not going to wash your hands every time you touch something.
“Do whatever makes you feel safe but remember there is some science here.
“Go ahead and wear your gloves, but you need to clean your hands all the time. Don’t touch your face. Don’t touch your dirty phone.
“Throw your gloves in the trash. They do not belong in the parking lot on the ground.”