A former emergency room nurse in Saginaw, Michigan posted an instructional video to demonstrate just how fast germs could spread at a grocery store even if people are wearing gloves.
Molly Lixey said in an interview that she noticed many people wearing gloves and thinks that it is great, but she also saw all the cross-contamination, which defeats the purpose of the gloves.
“I was doing some painting around the house and it hit me that paint would be a perfect medium to use to explain this (cross contamination),” she explained.
“It terrifies me to think people believe they’re safe only because they are wearing gloves and not have them be aware that they could still be harming themselves or others.”
In her now viral video, she put on a pair of gloves and used paint while pretending to be at a grocery store, and used a piece of cardboard to represent her cellphone.
She imagined to take a roll of toilet paper off the shelves, in which in her example contains germs that would be left on her hands.
“I’m walking along and then my phone rings! I have a text message from my husband telling me to get more chicken,” she said.
Lixey demonstrated how the paint that came originally from the roll of toilet paper were spread all over her cell phone.
She continued to go through her theoretical shopping trip, touching more items, which left even more germs on her hands.
She advised that after wearing gloves on a shopping trip, “You take them off appropriately and they belong in the trash!”
“Instead of putting them in the parking lot next to your vehicle, please put them in the trash.”
Her point? “There’s no point in wearing gloves, if you’re not gonna wash your hands every time you touch something.”