wash your hands

A simple compromise is to wash your hands with non-antibacterial soap.

Or embrace the sickness.

Being sick is a part of life; enjoy it.

I say that as someone who as we speak is coughing up some crap from my lungs.

Oh no... I think I have to wash my eyeballs after reading your post. I don't want to catch that cold you have!

Use regular soap, hot water and don't touch door knobs. Use paper towels to open the doors of the restroom in public places.....or at home if you don't sort your silverware in the dishwasher.

I don't trust hand sanitizers. They lull you into a false sense of security.

Mix a spray bottle 75% water 25% white vinegar (I just made that ratio up, use 50/50 if you prefer) and spray your countertops and appliances. That sanitizes just as well as commercial products.

Don't you people have any natural immunities? Your immune systems gone haywire? I WILL NOT make myself look like a fool by using paper towels to touch doorknobs in public places. Please! How germ-pconcious are we going to get before we realize that it's all a matter of karma -- you're either going to get sick or you're not. Wash your hands, sure, but don't start acting like a character from a 1930s melodrama.

(There was a character named Benzinger in the Hecht-McArthur stage play The Front Page. He was always spraying his belongings, including his typewriter keys, with germicide in the Cook County Jail press room, afraid that other reporters had been using his phone and his typewriter in his absence, spreading dreaded germs. He was there for comic relief.)

Pride goeth before a fall.

When I look around at the general population, and what they deem appropriate behavior in public, I couldn't care less what anyone else thinks of me for taking precautions that I personally decided to take.

Hold on, even without looking at the general population, I still couldn't care less of what anyone thinks of me for taking precautions that I personally decided to take.

Why in the world would are you concerned about other people thinking you look like a fool?
If you saw me and thought I looked foolish for anything I chose to do, that's your problem, not mine.

Getting sick is not karma. Sometimes you dodge a bullet, but usually in order not to become ill you avoid contaminents.
I guess you think if you bluster enough, and proclaim loudly, you may sway people who might have a problem with even potentially looking foolish. You'll convince them that they shouldn't do something, even if it goes against their personal judgement.
I'll make my own decisions regarding my health, thank you very much.

Also, I've been sick enough in my life that I don't feel I need to embrace illness, but rather, embrace the fact I'm intelligent enough to avoid it.
Since I now avoid such situations, I've rarely become ill, and feel pretty damn good about that. Enough to embrace it even.

Everyone who uses paper towels to touch doorknobs in public places is going to die (in addition to looking like an idiot).

I just wash my hands and use whatever soap is available. I do have sanitizer at my desk as they gave them out at work and I have one in my car and it seems like I have one now everywhere -pretty much because I keep getting this as trickets now at various functions - odd huh.

I will use the santizer crap when soap and water isn't available, however, I don't think this has changed due to swine flu hysteria - just normal hygiene. I just have more of the sanitizer because everywhere it is being handed out.

I think the best defense for me against catching colds and flus was when I stopped taking public transportation. Since then, I have rarely gotten sick.

Hand Sanitizers are generally made from alcohol which has been clinically proven to sanitize. White vinegar doesn't not have alcohol in it. It does have acetic acid-- but that doesn't have the clinically proven sanitizing effects that a 60-70% alcohol based solution has.

The benefit of hand sanitizers (beyond the fact they are based on science) is that they don't make you look like an idiot.

I put peppers in my vinegar, the alcohol goes down the hatch, paper towels are for cleaning up cat and dog barf and bacon splatters on the stove. I religiously use hand sanitizers on my feet and arm pits.

Funny. Consider the leap of faith we take when we walk outside our home, your immune system protects you from a boatload of nasty stuff. On the other hand, the paper towel and the door handle thing-- I prefer to do it, it may be useless, but it feels like an added layer of protection.

If you do it discretely enough, there is no reason to be embarrassed either.

Don't forget to use the paper towel to shut off the water tap as well.

Pretty soon it will be impossible to do anything without the protection of paper...


Even going to bathroom!

well, there's always duck tape.

I avoid public washrooms, where possible. I have, through this process, developed great control. Hand sanitizer is always on my person and I have been doing this for years. Nothing to do with the current hysteria. BTW - I can't remember the last time I was sick.

Also... I have enough self esteem not to worry whether someone is watching or I might embarrass myself.

And use your foot (with shoes on too of course) to flush the toliet!

<actually know some one who used to do this and they slipped and the foot went into the toliet>

I actually know many of the cleanest best bathrooms to use when walking through Boston - for instance - don't even think of using the public toliets at fanuel hall - they are deadly.

I wish I had the attention span to pull that off. When I have to go, well I think you should get the idea. Living in NYC, avoiding public washrooms is not possible. One can be a shrewd educated consumer and find out what washrooms one must avoid at all cost.