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Wearing gloves to the grocery store during the coronavirus pandemic? It's good to take precautions like that, a Michigan nurse says in a video that's been shared around the world - but you need to remember the dangers of cross-contamination.
Nurse Molly Lixey, of Saginaw, Michigan, posted a video last week using paint to demonstrate how germs can spread even while wearing gloves.
"If you want to wear gloves that's all fine and well, you absolutely can," she said. "But I wanted to remind you of a little thing called cross-contamination."
In the video, Lixey put her disposable gloves on and pretended to reach for toilet paper that had been contaminated, dipping her fingertips lightly into paint to symbolize contact with the coronavirus that is invisible to the human eye.
She touches her hands together a few times afterwards, then pretends she's gotten a text message from her husband and reaches for her phone, smearing paint all over her pretend cell phone as she "responds" to him.
Lixey then pretends her nose itches, reaching to scratch it with her gloved hand and smearing paint on her face.
"Now, my phone's ringing, it's my mom," she says, putting the previously-contaminated phone up to her face and leaving even more paint across her cheek.
Lixey mimes finishing up her shopping and demonstrates the proper technique to take off her gloves but then notes what could be a disastrous next move: picking up her phone once in the car, smearing the virus all over her now-bare hands.
"This is called cross-contamination," she says, showing her now paint-covered hands. "There's no point in wearing gloves if you're not going to wash your hands every time you touch something. There's no point, friends."
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"Do whatever makes you feel safe. But remember there is some science here and all this fear is just manifesting people into being crazy and to not acting very smart," Lixey continued.
"So one: Go ahead, wear your gloves. But you need to clean your hands all the time. Don't touch your face. Don't touch your dirty phone," she says to close the video. "Secondly, throw your gloves in the trash. They do not belong in the parking lot on the ground."
