SARS

So SARS has come and gone, and in its wake, we're left with......mountains of hand sanitizer. Every public place I go now, I see bottles of hand sanitizer. But I don't think anyone's hands are getting any more sanitized.

Ever watch someone use hand sanitizer? They pump a little out, mix it on their palms half-heartedly, and move on. I'm officially sanitized, they think. Therein lies the problem. EVERYONE will now use that same bottle. In fact, people will share even MORE germs by sharing the damn hand sanitizer bottle as they are sanitizing their hands. It's sanitizing insanity. You take the bottle, (touching it), rinse, (touch it) and put it back (touching it s'more). The next sanitizee comes up and does the same. People are actually spreading MORE germs than before! No one even does a good job of cleaning their hands: they just get a few knuckles, maybe a thumb, at best. I mean, how am I to believe that a few wipes of some nice-smelling lotion is gonna sanitize my hands?

Ever watched ER? Ever seen a Doctor soap up? Thirty scrubs on each finger, methodically. It takes them 20 minutes to wash their hands with stuff that probably smells worse than Napalm. They even take a course on how to clean their hands in med school. And we, the laymen germaphobes of the world, think we can do the same with a five second wipe from a bottle of hand sanitizer we bought at Shoppers DrugMart.