Interesting that everyone is talking in past tense in this thread. Where I live hand sanitiser is still everywhere and people still use it all the time. I don't recall ever seeing it outside of hospitals prior to the pandemic.
The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
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Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#12I had this problem with a ton of leftover sanitizer that my parents got me. I eventually let it 'cook off' in the sun. But i did get to show my kids how ethanol produces an 'invisible' flame.
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on why you believe it was unproductive insanity?
With respect to covid, I remember it being said that washing your hands with soap was the most effective way to stop the virus spreading from physical contact. Yet the assumption that many people had was that alcohol based hand sanitizer was more effective. Sure, hand sanitizer is better than nothing, but old fashion soap and water was what the doctors recommended. Thats my guess anyway.
You didn’t always have access to a place to wash your hands or soap. Many Native Americans don’t have running water and sanitizer was needed badly, when they asked the government to help they got sent body bags instead
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#14This hand sanitizer everywhere thing was just one of the many unproductive insanities of the Covid era. Quick story: In 2021 I was shopping at an Office Max in Florida. At the counter, the checkout guy snuck two small bottles into my bag. Me: Wait! I didn't buy that! Him: Don't worry, it's free. Me: Ok, but what is it? Him: Hand sanitizer, we're giving them away. Me: (Takes bottles out of bag, hands back to him)
I worry about overuse of hand sanitizer creating antibiotic resistant "superbugs" as we've been told for decades... but I sure as hell can't go to a gas station or a grocery store without washing my hands with hand sanitizer any more. I feel like I can see the germs now.
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#15Just one aspect of the huge, tragicomic waste that resulted from the medical establishment's position that airborne transmission couldn't be real because it reminded everyone too much of miasma theory. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.13070
Seems like an excessively speculative theory when the alternative, "SARS1 infections were overwhelmingly driven by droplet spread and SARS-COV 2 is a close relative so we expect it to behave similarly" is right there..
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#16Just one aspect of the huge, tragicomic waste that resulted from the medical establishment's position that airborne transmission couldn't be real because it reminded everyone too much of miasma theory. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.13070
Looking back, it was crazy how much emphasis was placed on surface transmission.
I remember people talking about wiping down grocery boxes left in front of their door with hand sanitizer and leaving it to sit for 72 hours before bringing it inside.
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#17TL;DR: If all media tell you the same thing over and over again, just don't do it and you should be safe. Propaganda is propaganda, don't get confused if many people around you fall for it, just stay on your path and trust your intuition and supress the urge to follow the herd.
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#18TL;DR: If all media tell you the same thing over and over again, just don't do it and you should be safe. Propaganda is propaganda, don't get confused if many people around you fall for it, just stay on your path and trust your intuition and supress the urge to follow the herd.
The average consumer was fine, just don't start a business based on what's very likely temporary policy. Though, I suppose one could argue that business is always a gamble and some people made a lot of money off of the pandemic.
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#19This hand sanitizer everywhere thing was just one of the many unproductive insanities of the Covid era. Quick story: In 2021 I was shopping at an Office Max in Florida. At the counter, the checkout guy snuck two small bottles into my bag. Me: Wait! I didn't buy that! Him: Don't worry, it's free. Me: Ok, but what is it? Him: Hand sanitizer, we're giving them away. Me: (Takes bottles out of bag, hands back to him)
I worry about overuse of hand sanitizer creating antibiotic resistant "superbugs" as we've been told for decades... but I sure as hell can't go to a gas station or a grocery store without washing my hands with hand sanitizer any more. I feel like I can see the germs now.
Washing your hands after being in a public place is fine, you're not going to create antibiotic resistance with simple hygiene. If you're using hand sanitizer dozens of times a day that's a different story (mostly because it's going to do a number on your skin).
Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom
#20This hand sanitizer everywhere thing was just one of the many unproductive insanities of the Covid era. Quick story: In 2021 I was shopping at an Office Max in Florida. At the counter, the checkout guy snuck two small bottles into my bag. Me: Wait! I didn't buy that! Him: Don't worry, it's free. Me: Ok, but what is it? Him: Hand sanitizer, we're giving them away. Me: (Takes bottles out of bag, hands back to him)
I worry about overuse of hand sanitizer creating antibiotic resistant "superbugs" as we've been told for decades... but I sure as hell can't go to a gas station or a grocery store without washing my hands with hand sanitizer any more. I feel like I can see the germs now.
Proper sanitizer - e.g. alcohol with ~70% concentration - is as close to "resistance-proof" as is possible. There's never been any indication of adaptations at that level, it's just too destructive to bacterial cells. Avoid the "alcohol-free" sanitizers since they rely on other chemicals to achieve the same effect but go crazy with the alcohol-based ones.