Opinion: In a pandemic, hospital staffers need to get better at hand-washing
After visiting Ellis Island in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt noted the lack of hand-washing by doctors and wrote the Public Health Service that he was “struck by the way doctors made the examinations with dirty hands,” turning the examinations themselves into “a fruitful source of carrying infection.”
Fast forward 114 years: Today’s hospitals aren’t doing much better at hand-washing. That’s a serious problem in ordinary times; during the Covid-19 national emergency it could become extraordinarily dangerous. One way the government can protect public safety is by immediately setting specific hand hygiene standards for doctors, nurses, and hospital staff.
