02 January 2010

Should we give it the elbow?

Since the devastating 'flu pandemic Dr Grumble has been dutifully sneezing into his elbow and washing his hands frequently. His suit elbows are now in quite a state but that is the price you have to pay for halting the spread of disease. But now Dr G has learnt that there is actually no evidence that washing your hands prevents the spread of flu. So what about sneezing into your elbow? Is there any evidence for that? Because Dr Grumble is thinking of buying a new suit and he would prefer not to have his dried-up nasal discharge coating the elbows.

Who was it that thought up the idea of sneezing into your elbow? What is the evidence base? How much money has been spent on spreading this mantra? Does anybody out there know? Can you believe that there is a sneezeintoelbow.com web site?

9 comments:

Dr Aust said...

Are you inferring they don't know their proverbial ar*e from their elbow, Dr G?

Which makes me wonder if there is some anatomically suitable way to re-write the advice...

Dr Grumble said...

There is probably safer way to sneeze but I have no evidence to support it.

Julie said...

Thanks for my laugh of the day, guys! Though I think that guy is his own worst enema myself..

Cockroach Catcher said...

Happy New Year. Right now I am in Chile brushing up my Spanish.

Martik Panosian said...

Y not?

Anonymous said...

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/files/health-draft-manifesto.pdf

have a read let us know what u think

StorytellERdoc said...

I am not kidding, right before I read your blog this am I sneezed three times...into my elbow. Now with a changed shirt, I'm ready to attack the morning!

Great post, great blog. Really enjoy reading your words. Have a good day.

Hayley said...

According to the myriad posters (and display screens) around my hospital, I believe you are supposed to 'Catch it, Bin it, Kill it'. But surely the germs are festering in the bin? Or are snotted upon tissues supposed to go into clinical waste? If so, we need more clinical waste bins.

Dr Grumble said...

'Catch it, Bin it, Kill it' seems reasonably sensible but I suppose the advantage of your elbow is that you can, theoretically anyway, keep the viruses off your hands.