Despite our best efforts to limit the spread of germs propelled into the air when we cough or sneeze, a new study from researchers in New Zealand suggests that many of us aren’t doing a great job. As the Associated Press reports, an observational study of people in public places in the New Zealand capital of Wellington suggests that roughly three quarters of people at least make an attempt to cover coughs and sneezes, but that, unfortunately most who do just launch the bacteria onto their hands — where they can spread it by touching surfaces and other people.
The research, which presented today at a conference on infectious diseases in Atlanta, was conducted last August in the middle of the swine flu outbreak and included nearly 400 public coughs and sneezes at a shopping mall, train station and hospital. At the time, there were several public health campaigns instructing people on the most effective way to cover coughs and sneezes to limit the spread of disease — by lifting your elbow up over your face (a gesture the AP notes some refer to as “the Dracula” because it resembles the vampire drawing up his cape). Yet, the study revealed that, even in the thick of the swine flu outbreak, only 1 in 77 did so.
