167 - Hygiene Theater: The Deep Cleaning Performances That Offer Little Protection from COVID-19
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 28 September 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Research has shown that COVID-19 transmission is largely through airborne droplets and particles expelled during sneezing, coughing, talking, and singing. There's little evidence, though, that surfaces are making us sick. Microbiologist Dr. Emanuel Goldman talks with Stephanie Desmon about the science behind COVID transmission research, the strong evidence that infection comes from aerosols and not surfaces, and how excess sanitation in public spaces may be giving us a false sense of security when all we really need is to wash our hands.
KEYWORDS: fomite; hand washing; pandemic response
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Season 2 of Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins |
| 0:11.6 | Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:18.8 | and a former secretary of Maryland's Health Department. |
| 0:21.8 | Our goal is to bring scientific evidence and experience to the public health news of the day |
| 0:27.3 | through informative interviews with scientists, community leaders, policy experts, public |
| 0:32.5 | health officials, clinicians, and more. If you have ideas or questions for us to cover, |
| 0:38.4 | please email us at public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:43.1 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:49.1 | Today, Stephanie Desmond talks to Emmanuel Goldman, |
| 0:53.0 | a microbiology professor at Rutgers University, |
| 0:56.4 | about hygiene theater, the act of showing our commitment |
| 1:01.1 | to fighting COVID-19 by the deep cleaning of surfaces. |
| 1:05.9 | But the science, he says, provides little evidence |
| 1:08.7 | that surfaces are making us sick. |
| 1:11.1 | And all of this excess sanitation could be giving a false sense of security. |
| 1:16.1 | Just wash your hands, he says. |
| 1:19.0 | Let's listen. |
| 1:20.5 | Emmanuel Goldman, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 1:23.4 | Thank you. |
| 1:24.9 | So today I have you here. |
| 1:26.3 | I want to talk to you about COVID and this concept of hygiene theater, which is really |
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