The “Mean Girl” host said she doesn’t wash her hands after using the restroom. Doctors say it’s terrible and unsafe.

“Did you wash your hands when you were little?” asked co-host Alex Bennett mean girlthe Barstool Sports podcast about sex, relationships, and adulthood. episode Released last week.

Podcast co-host Jordyn Woodruff responded, “I did it because I was forced to…but I made a conscious decision to stop washing my hands when I was in college.” She said “no hand washing” from 10am to 7pm. (She revealed that she cleans her hands after pooping.)

Woodruff admits that the social pressure to wash her hands after using the restroom is so strong that she sometimes fakes it. I don’t want to be broken, so sometimes I want to get the water out,” said Woodruff.

Forget your roommate. doctor I cringe at the fact that podcasters of all kinds are debating whether or not we should wash our hands in 2023. kills 2,000 people each year week.

“I really don’t trust people who wash their hands because I don’t think it does anything for them to actually wash their hands,” Bennett said, later adding.[people] I wasn’t used to washing them in the old days…and I was less sick. ‘ She doesn’t like to wash her hands, she said, because she doesn’t like to get ‘wet’. Woodruff added that Bennett doesn’t like showers either.

Even a week later, the roughly three-minute discussion clip has gone viral on social media and is gaining a lot of users. shocked and gross out reaction.

The problem isn’t that podcast hosts don’t wash their hands after using the restroom (which in itself is clearly a problem). A bigger concern is that they disguise misinformation with trendy honesty and quirkiness. , can give others who think and act in a similar way a false sense of security that what they are doing is okay or safe.

“To perpetuate a misunderstanding that someone somehow contributes to [the myth that handwashing isn’t important], I don’t want to be on the side of the issue,” Zeman said. “Pathogens are incredibly small, they can settle anywhere they have a basic environment and the ability to replicate, and they do so very quickly. That’s why we continue to enforce good practices.”

Bennett was right. People often did not wash their hands. 1860, Life expectancy for people in the United States was only 39 years oldIn 2020, that number was 80, partly because immunizations, good sanitation and other public health measures have significantly reduced infant mortality.

In fact, a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelwei first Discovered the importance of washing hands In medical practice, the idea that microbes can cause disease became popular 20 years before the germ theory.

Semmelweis worked at a maternity hospital in Vienna. There she had two clinics, one of which was run by a doctor and medical student who began dissecting women who died of puerperal fever (or puerperal fever). Without washing their hands, doctors and medical students moved to maternity wards where vaginal examinations were performed (this was before gloves were commonly used in hospitals).

The results were fatal. Between 1840 and her 1846, the clinic’s maternal mortality rate was 98.4 per 1,000 of her births. However, at a second clinic run by midwives who did not perform autopsies or routine vaginal examinations, the rate was 36.2 per 1,000 live births.

After much research, Semmelweis began requiring students to wash their hands with chlorinated lime (now called bleaching powder) before entering the maternity ward. In 1846 he reduced his maternal mortality rate to 12.7 per 1,000 live births, comparable to the midwifery mortality rate of the time.

“The fact that we’re discussing basic science in 2023 speaks to how many times these issues need to be fixed,” Zeman said.

Sabina Holland, Ph.D., a physician in pediatric infectious diseases and professor at Brown University Warren-Alpert School of Medicine, told BuzzFeed News, “Handwashing is an effective way to reduce the spread of microbes (or bacteria) from person to person. It’s the only and most important way,” he said. .

Poor hand hygiene Approximately 300,000 people die annually worldwide, most of which are aimed at children under the age of five. According to the CDC, hand washing Prevents approximately 30% of diarrhea-related diseases About 20% of respiratory infections such as the common cold and flu. This practice also helps reduce antibiotic resistance (when drugs no longer work against certain bacteria) by preventing infections that require antibiotics in the first place.

Both Woodruff and Bennett feel they don’t need to wash their hands after waking up to pee in the middle of the night.

“No matter what happens on the toilet, I wholeheartedly recommend that you wash your hands whenever you use the toilet! It reduces risk,” Holland wrote in an email. “Time of day is irrelevant.”

Whether you pee or poop, you usually can’t leave the toilet without touching a surface.Bacteria and viruses that cause diarrhea and/or vomiting, such as norovirus, Clostridium difficile (C. diff), E. coli, and Salmonella love to wait on toilets, sink handles, doorknobs, and other places. Other bacteria, such as adenoviruses and hand-foot-and-mouth disease, can also be spread in the bathroom environment.

No matter how diligent you are about cleaning your toilet, flushing it can still aerosolize bacteria onto surfaces. If you touch them and don’t wash your hands, you can spread those germs.

(Fun fact: 1 gram of human feces weighing a paper clip contains 1 trillion germs.)

“Personally, I’d rather wash my hands effectively than experience these infections (and expect my kids and partners to do the same).

Woodruff and Bennett also admitted to pretending to wash their hands at work by flushing the sink after using the restroom.

The revelation sparked a strong backlash from another podcaster from the Barstool Sports office, Kelly Keegs. posted a blog On the same day the episode aired, she said, “Nobody needs to see that the chances of contracting the bubonic plague are increasing every day in this office cesspool.” (Woodruff and Bennett next podcast episode and Social media.)

Keegs also said that she ” Bri girl planning not to wash her hands They put out about the same clip as a year ago, but at least they know it’s a garbage bag, so they get a pass.

Unfortunately, Woodruff and Bennett aren’t the only ones with unhealthy habits. In his YouGov poll of over 24,000 American adults conducted in 2020, 25% wash their hands with soap “most of the time” After using the bathroom; 10% sometimes do. And 4% rarely do. Globally, it is estimated that only 19% of people wash their hands after using the toilet.

If you need reminders, here are some hand washing tips From the CDC:

• Always wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, reaching for the back of your hands, between your fingers, and under your fingernails. If you don’t have soap, rinsing with just water is better than nothing, says Zeman.
• If a sink is not available, hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol can be used, but should be allowed to air dry naturally. Otherwise it will have no effect. Also, keep in mind that disinfectants do not kill all types of bacteria, such as norovirus.
• Always wash your hands before and after preparing food, eating, caring for sick people, and treating open wounds. Always wash your hands after using the restroom, changing diapers, blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, touching or feeding animals, and after touching garbage.