Hygiene, empirical

February 21, 2020 — April 6, 2020

diy
health
Figure 1

1 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?

Figure 2

TBD: Does covering things with copper help?

TBD: Do zinc lozenges help?

2 Hygiene instincts

Figure 3

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

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3 Masks

See hygienic masks

Figure 4

4 References

Boyce. 2004. New Insights for Improving Hand Hygiene Practices.” Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Curtis, de Barra, and Aunger. 2011. Disgust as an Adaptive System for Disease Avoidance Behaviour.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Davey. 2011. Disgust: The Disease-Avoidance Emotion and Its Dysfunctions.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
ECRI. 2016. “Antimicrobial Copper Surfaces for Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection Risk.” 63.
Fischer, Fischer, Grass, et al. 2020. Low-Cost Measurement of Facemask Efficacy for Filtering Expelled Droplets During Speech.” Science Advances.
Mitze, Kosfeld, Rode, et al. 2020. Unmasked! The Effect of Face Masks on the Spread of COVID-19.” VoxEU.org (blog).
Oaten, Stevenson, and Case. 2011. Disease Avoidance as a Functional Basis for Stigmatization.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Sarabian, Curtis, and McMullan. 2018. Evolution of Pathogen and Parasite Avoidance Behaviours†.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Taylor. 1978. An evaluation of handwashing techniques.” Nursing Times.
Yasuyuki, Kunihiro, Kurissery, et al. 2010. Antibacterial Properties of Nine Pure Metals: A Laboratory Study Using Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia Coli.” Biofouling.