A Guide to Proper Sneezing

October 18, 2006 8:40 PM

Why Don't We Do It In Our Sleeves? A short instructional video.
posted by graventy (34 comments total)

Dr. Polly Morph??
posted by LordSludge at 8:45 PM on October 18, 2006

Why Don't We Not Use JPEG For Text So That We Don't Have Ugly Compression Artifacts
posted by Rhomboid at 8:59 PM on October 18, 2006

If you don't cough in to your clothes, the terrorists win.
posted by poweredbybeard at 9:11 PM on October 18, 2006

What do you do with the snot, wear it with pride?
posted by tellurian at 9:11 PM on October 18, 2006

Timely. My throat itches.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:28 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

Heh... I just did it in my sleeve.
posted by c13 at 9:37 PM on October 18, 2006

What do you do with the snot, wear it with pride?

Yeah, I've been coughing and sneezing into my sleeves for several years now, ever since I realized the health implications of coughing into my hands, and this is the one big problem. Most of the time you can tell if you're about to sneeze something, or just sneeze. But ever now and then you'll surprise yourself.
posted by scottreynen at 9:39 PM on October 18, 2006

yeah. i totally cough into my sleeve. anyone who doesn't is a biological terrorist.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 9:42 PM on October 18, 2006

I always used my elbows as my sneeze or cough receptacle.
posted by Citizen Premier at 9:47 PM on October 18, 2006

I've been a crook cougher for as long as I can remember. but I still wipe my nose with the heel of my hand or the side of my forefinger. and then I wipe it on out-of-the-way places on walls.
posted by carsonb at 9:53 PM on October 18, 2006

Low budget video at its finest! Did anyone else feel bad for the dessicating germs?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:54 PM on October 18, 2006

(I don't really, but somebody does. who the fuck are you?)
posted by carsonb at 9:54 PM on October 18, 2006

I do this as well. It's the best way to sneeze or cough in crowded spaces. If I have to do it in my hands, I wipe them on my pants.

This video is crazy. Where does it lie on the irony continuum?
posted by redteam at 10:32 PM on October 18, 2006

Faced with the choice of making you sick or wearing a smeared chunk of lung butter on my arm for the rest of the day, you're getting sick.
posted by quite unimportant at 10:42 PM on October 18, 2006

I sneeze down my shirt-neck.
posted by unmake at 11:18 PM on October 18, 2006

I always sneeze on my sleeve. Snot comes out in the wash.
posted by Auguris at 11:24 PM on October 18, 2006

Great video. Once seen, the message can never be forgotten.

I just sent the Google Video link to some friends, then realised what an interesting concept this is: Reducing the spread of virus in the real world by distributing a viral video on the internet.

Pass it on!
posted by Phasuma at 12:05 AM on October 19, 2006

Does anyone have a direct link to that? It doesn't play in my browser.
posted by pracowity at 1:07 AM on October 19, 2006

The quicktime file is here, the Windows Media file is here. Either ought to work if you right click and "Save As..."
posted by Rhomboid at 1:48 AM on October 19, 2006

I agree that it's a good idea to sneeze or cough into your sleeve. I'm pro-public health. But this video really stretched a pretty thin comedic theme thinner still. Should've been much faster paced, more tightly edited. I'd say they could've turned that 5 minutes into about 2 minutes and they would've had something more effective. As a video.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:04 AM on October 19, 2006

Way ahead of the curve on this. Been sneezing into my sleeve for years. Also, if I don't have a napkin handy, I wipe my fingers on my socks. The gunk remains hidden, and since you don't wear socks twice in a row it's guaranteed to be washed.

Can't get my girlfriend to see the logic of this, though.
posted by zardoz at 2:08 AM on October 19, 2006

Can't get my girlfriend to see the logic of this

They often don't. See logic, that is. ;)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:19 AM on October 19, 2006

One other thought: Is it okay to sneeze into someone else's sleeve?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:22 AM on October 19, 2006

Thanks, Rhomboid.

I'm a sleeve-cougher and a sleeve-sneezer if it's casual coughing and sneezing, where I won't be coughing up horrible stuff.

I'm not a sleeve-sneezer if I've got a bad cold, I'm expecting the worst, and I've got a paper tissue handy, but I think I make up for that by washing my hands a lot (it's tough on the skin, though), being careful how I open doors (not quite Howard Hughes style, but), and getting an annual flu injection (flu kills kids and old people -- get an injection).

I also wear my Nutty Buddy at all times.
posted by pracowity at 2:31 AM on October 19, 2006

The Japanese don't have to soil their sleeves.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:43 AM on October 19, 2006

Acooridng to my friends I'm the loudest sneezer in the world. When I have to sneeze I'm completely paralyzed, I can't even warn anybody in the vicinity to cover their ears. I often even can't cover my mouth, either with hands or sleeves. I don't spread much mucus though, as far as I can tell.

I guess that makes me a terrorist.

[Right now I have two bruised ribs and sneezing is not something I want to think about. I coughed an hour ago and it almost made me faint.]
posted by kika at 6:10 AM on October 19, 2006

Thank god. Whenever I see someone sneeze on his hands in the subway and then grab the pole again--eeecchh.
posted by dame at 6:31 AM on October 19, 2006

kika. I can't believe people want to wear this on their sleeve.
[dame] Whenever I see someone sneeze on his their hands in the subway and then grab the pole again. I am so with you on that.
posted by tellurian at 6:54 AM on October 19, 2006

I was using his as the general singular because I don't like their. It didn't need to be fixed.
posted by dame at 7:38 AM on October 19, 2006

Ok, the images are disgusting.

Unmake, I also sneeze into my shirt neck when I can. Sometimes it is too tight, and then I try and sneeze into my sleeve if I think nothing is coming up.

If no one else is around, or I'm outdoors, I actually rotate my head down towards the side of my right arm and try to sneeze behind me. I place the backside of my right hand just to the left of my mouth to deflect any particles away from anyone standing near me. That sends a big jet of germs into the air, but at least I'm clean and haven't gotten my germs on any surfaces people are likely to touch, like doorknobs or telephones.

Most germs are harder to spread via inhalation. The majority of germs are caused by being physically inserted into mucus membranes like the eyes, nose and mouth by the hands. Of course, I just pulled that out of my ass, but I think its true LOL.
posted by PigAlien at 7:47 AM on October 19, 2006

I sneeze like a sawed off shotgun taking out a room full of riverboat gamblers and devil take the hindmost.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:12 AM on October 19, 2006

I was using his as the general singular because I don't like their. It didn't need to be fixed.
Fair enough, sorry. I'd like to familiarise myself with the term 'general singular', but it turns up around fifteen and a half million results in Google [Seriously, I will. I've never heard of the term].
On the other hand, from the way it read to me, you were saying that only men do snotty stuff on their hands and then steady themselves on the pole. From my observations (as a public transportee of many years, I can tell you that I've seen some really objectionable personal hygiene stuff from both genders on the train. Nose picking and flicking, Nails - both finger and toe clipping - discarded on the floor. Generally - food eating (oranges - discarding skin and pips on the floor), Spilled drink containers and leftover food wrappings and containers, crisp packets, etc.) So, as I said - I'm with you.
posted by tellurian at 9:22 AM on October 19, 2006

Fair enough, tellurian. I was using it the old-school way--you know before the ladies got all uppity and shit. (As for general singular I don't think that's really a term--neutral singular or something. Like on in French.) But we're missing the important part: we agree that people on the train can be really gross.
posted by dame at 9:41 AM on October 19, 2006

Most germs are harder to spread via inhalation. The majority of germs are caused by being physically inserted into mucus membranes like the eyes, nose and mouth by the hands.

That's why you should not sneeze into your hands, of course, because you will then open a door and your germs will stay on the handle for a long time. Meanwhile, a number of people will use the same door, touch the handle, pick up your germs, and then touch their own eyes, noses, and mouths.

Recent Study:

[...] To begin the study, people with colds were recruited to spend 5 hours awake in hotel rooms before going to bed and 2 awake hours in their rooms the next morning. The volunteers had no visitors and were asked to wash their hands only after using the bathroom. At the time of check out, participants were asked to identify objects they had touched. After they left, ten of the touched objects in the subject's room were tested for the presence of rhinovirus. Thirty five percent of the objects had residual virus, demonstrating that people with colds do not have to be present for their germs to linger.

In order to infect an individual, germs must reach the eyes or the nose, usually by way of a person's own fingers. So researchers then set out to learn if germs lingering in the environment can make the leap from surfaces to fingers.

In order to test this leap, researchers invited six of the participants to return to the hotel several months later. This time, virus-containing mucus taken at the time of the participants' colds, which had been stored, was used to contaminate two sets of light switches, telephone key pads and telephone handsets in two different rooms. In one room, the mucus was allowed to dry for one hour. In the second room, the mucus dried overnight. The participants were asked to dial phone numbers, hold the handsets and flip on light switches in both rooms. Sixty percent of the contacts with contaminated objects that dried for an hour resulted in rhinovirus transfer to fingertips. Thirty-three percent of contacts with objects that dried overnight resulted in rhinovirus transfer to fingertips. [...]

posted by pracowity at 1:49 PM on October 19, 2006