Hygiene, empirical



Empirically effective hygiene

How do I avoid infectious disease? What is the best trade-off of robust-immune-health versus exposure to nasty pathogens? Do particulate masks do anything useful against disease? What?

I am no particular expert. Perhaps I can outsource my thinking on this issue to the useful obsessives on the internet?

TBD: Does covering things with copper help?

TBD: Do zinc lozenges help?

Hygiene instincts

How are we so bad at avoiding contagion? Are other animals any better? Keyword: “Disgust instinct”.

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References

Boyce, John M. 2004. New Insights for Improving Hand Hygiene Practices.” Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 25 (3): 187–88.
Curtis, Valerie, Mícheál de Barra, and Robert Aunger. 2011. Disgust as an Adaptive System for Disease Avoidance Behaviour.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366 (1563): 389–401.
Davey, Graham C. L. 2011. Disgust: The Disease-Avoidance Emotion and Its Dysfunctions.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366 (1583): 3453–65.
ECRI. 2016. “Antimicrobial Copper Surfaces for Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection Risk.” 63. ECRI.
Fischer, Emma P., Martin C. Fischer, David Grass, Isaac Henrion, Warren S. Warren, and Eric Westman. 2020. Low-Cost Measurement of Facemask Efficacy for Filtering Expelled Droplets During Speech.” Science Advances, August, eabd3083.
Mitze, Timo, Reinhold Kosfeld, Johannes Rode, and Klaus Wälde. 2020. Unmasked! The Effect of Face Masks on the Spread of COVID-19.” VoxEU.org (blog).
Oaten, Megan, Richard J. Stevenson, and Trevor I. Case. 2011. Disease Avoidance as a Functional Basis for Stigmatization.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366 (1583): 3433–52.
Sarabian, Cecile, Val Curtis, and Rachel McMullan. 2018. Evolution of Pathogen and Parasite Avoidance Behaviours†.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 373 (1751).
Taylor, L. J. 1978. An evaluation of handwashing techniques.” Nursing Times 74 (3): 108–10.
Yasuyuki, Miyano, Koyama Kunihiro, Sreekumari Kurissery, Nandakumar Kanavillil, Yoshiro Sato, and Yasushi Kikuchi. 2010. Antibacterial Properties of Nine Pure Metals: A Laboratory Study Using Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia Coli.” Biofouling 26 (7): 851–58.

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