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I wrote about “Hygiene Theater”—how restaurants, gyms, and subways have wasted millions of dollars on fancy cleaning plans to defeat a mostly airborne plague and made Americans more confused and unsafe in the process. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/
What is hygiene theater?
It's restaurants bragging about power-scrubbing tables ... before inviting patrons inside to share stale indoor air.
It's the NYC subway shutting down its service at night to spend $100 million on antimicrobial blasting during a budget shortfall.
It's restaurants bragging about power-scrubbing tables ... before inviting patrons inside to share stale indoor air.
It's the NYC subway shutting down its service at night to spend $100 million on antimicrobial blasting during a budget shortfall.
COVID-19 is overwhelmingly more likely to spread via large droplets (coughs) and aerosolized droplets (saliva spray from talkers) than from surfaces.
That means: wear masks, keep distance, go outdoors.
Surfaces ("fomites") are often a distraction. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2.pdf
That means: wear masks, keep distance, go outdoors.
Surfaces ("fomites") are often a distraction. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2.pdf
Like post-9/11 "security theater," COVID-19 hygiene theatrics contain elements of rational fear.
You should still wash your hands frequently during a pandemic. If you've recently been in public, you shouldn't stick your fingers in your mouth for fun.
You should still wash your hands frequently during a pandemic. If you've recently been in public, you shouldn't stick your fingers in your mouth for fun.
But too many restaurants, schools, gyms, and subways have funneled their COVID anxieties into power-scrubbing theatrics that bear no relationship to the disease's actual vectors of transmission.
Drop the electrostatic disinfectant spray. Wear the mask. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/
Drop the electrostatic disinfectant spray. Wear the mask. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/
