PORTLAND, Ore. — How many times do you touch your face over the course of a day? You may not even notice when you do it. But it may be a good idea to start paying attention.
Dr. Nancy Elder at OHSU says the most common way we get sick with a virus is either due to droplets in the air when someone sneezes or coughs, or when we touch something with germs on it then touch our mouth, nose or eyes.
Those germs go straight into our body and can get us sick.
Unfortunately it's hard to not touch your face. In fact, the Washington Post made a video that shows health officials talking about the coronavirus, telling people not to touch their face, but then unknowingly doing it themselves.
“Almost all of us do it unless we train ourselves not to,” said Elder.
Elder said when she worked in Cincinnati, she conducted a study and found that people in medical offices touch their faces up to 50 times an hour.
She said other studies have found people in other settings, like schools or offices, do it between five to 15 times per hour.
“Sometimes putting something as simple as scotch tape on your finger so that when you touch yourself it feels wrong to kind of help train yourself, or sitting on your hands,” Elder said.
She emphasized that training yourself to be mindful of touching your face is the key.
The takeaways are to wash your hands, don't touch your face and just use common sense.