{"id":713528,"date":"2026-06-19T12:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/713528\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T12:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:21:08","slug":"infectious-disease-doc-things-people-do-that-make-me-squirm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/713528\/","title":{"rendered":"Infectious disease doc: Things people do that make me squirm"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s worse than spreading a disease? Not even realizing when you\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it happens more often than most people think because of simple, everyday behaviors that may seem harmless.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bruce Hirsch, MD<\/a>, an attending physician of infectious diseases at Northwell Health, teveals the super common habits that make him squirm because of their likelihood to spread pathogens.<\/p>\n

And while they\u2019re a bad move for anyone, he warns that they\u2019re especially risky for people who are more vulnerable to illness, like those with weakened immune systems and delicate GI tracts.<\/p>\n

You may be spreading bacteria without knowing it, but a few small changes can make a big difference. Malik\/peopleimages.com \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

1. Not washing hands properly before handling food\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washing one\u2019s hands might not come as a surprise, but it\u2019s not just about getting rid of dirt.<\/p>\n

The bigger concern is the bacteria you may be carrying without even knowing it. Hirsch explained that while many of those germs don\u2019t make you sick, they can be harmful to someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, a lot of us are colonized with bacteria that we\u2019re getting along with fine but can cause illness in other people,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cIf a person is colonized with potentially dangerous bacteria, then that becomes a real issue. Sometimes, it\u2019s not just the bacteria, it\u2019s what the bacteria are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fix is simple: Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and running water, creating friction by rubbing them together for at least 10 seconds before rinsing. <\/p>\n

And don\u2019t stop there. Hirsch said it\u2019s important to dry your hands with a towel or hand dryer rather than just shaking off the water. <\/p>\n

2. Improper sneezing technique\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everybody sneezes. The problem is where those sneezes land.<\/p>\n

Many people instinctively sneeze into their hands, which can quickly spread germs to everything they touch afterwards. But your elbow is actually the safest target, Hirsch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to put all the sneeze right in there so that it impacts a spot that never will touch anybody else or anything around you,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Bruce Hirsch, MD, advises people to focus on basic infection control habits, including washing hands thoroughly. Northwell Health<\/p>\n

He advises achooing right inside the bend of the elbow, pulling up your arm and turning away from anyone nearby. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat way, you\u2019re not putting all this stuff on your hands, which manipulates the area around you,\u201d said Hirsch.<\/p>\n

3. Overusing alcohol sanitizer\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can be too clean for your own good. <\/p>\n

While hand sanitizer has its place, Hirsch says there are some people who \u201cbathe themselves or their desks in alcohol sanitizer,\u201d an extreme that does more harm than good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn medical literature, there\u2019s this concept called the hygiene hypothesis,\u201d Hirsch explained. \u201c[It] states that over keeping the environment super clean has been associated with an increased frequency of allergic conditions such as peanut allergies in kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

His views align with a body of research<\/a> suggesting that exposure to the natural world can benefit both the immune system and the gut microbiome. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not evolve in the presence of alcohol hand- cleansing gel,\u201d he said. \u201cWe became what we are in response to an environment that often contained bacteria and germs, and we persevered as a species and evolved as a species anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

You might want to rethink dousing your hands in sanitizer. Milan \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

4. Shaking hands in a hospital<\/p>\n

In most settings, refusing a handshake might come across as rude. But in a hospital, it could be the smarter, safer move.<\/p>\n

Hirsch said he values connecting with patients and their loved ones, but a handshake can be especially risky. Hospitals, in particular, are filled with people battling different illnesses and taking different antibiotics, creating a unique environment for germs to run rampant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese patients pose a higher risk than seeing people in different types of social settings. In hospitals, it makes sense to avoid unnecessary casual contact,\u201d explained Hirsch. \u201cLet\u2019s tap elbows instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expressed less concern about by the spread of \u201cthe regular poop bugs\u201d in fecal mater than pathogens, such as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a prevalent \u201cpeculiar bug\u201d he considers one of the biggest offender. <\/p>\n

5. People wearing a mask in their chin \u2014 not their mouth and nose<\/p>\n

A mask can\u2019t do its job if it\u2019s not covering the parts of your face it\u2019s designed to protect.<\/p>\n

That may sound obvious, but Hirsch says he still sees plenty of people wearing masks under their noses or dangling from their chins, especially in healthcare settings where respiratory illnesses like the flu and COVID are a concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very peculiar kind of performative gesture, wearing a mask on your chin or below the nose so that you\u2019re able to breathe out in the atmosphere,\u201d he argued. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, the mask is not doing any good. And yet, you\u2019re wearing it on your face anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s worse than spreading a disease? Not even realizing when you\u2019re doing it. Unfortunately, it happens more often…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[8006,186,3286,23595,97,252,253,686,5599,673],"class_list":["post-713528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-diseases","tag-exclusive","tag-food-drink","tag-germs","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medicine","tag-public-health","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}