Was I Being a Germaphobe?

[ronandannette]

So no Dis gtg at your crib? Lol

Pro-tip: Don't bring a noodle salad.

 

[bethy]

And their response...

Congratulations! You get to host the next event.

I went to the trouble to log in on my phone just so I could applaud this!!! OMG!!

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

I'm on a role, third time I've heard that this week!

I didn’t realize you were an actor. Congrats!

 

[luvsJack]

Eh, I'm not too sure about that. Germs from likely one hand on a cell-phone vs germs from multiple hands. Even if the cell phone owner never washed their hands, it would still be better than germs from 10 people who may or may not have washed their hands.

You would be surprised.

Our Medical Lab students do lab tests on all kinds of stuff during one of their classes. They come around the building and do swab tests and then let us know what it says. Most of the time the toilet has the fewest germs. (I am guessing because it’s cleaned a few times a day).

After their tests, the local sale of Clorox wipes goes waaayy up.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Kissing for 10 seconds exchanges something like 80 million bacteria between partners. And I'm not stopping that.
Then again my group of friends also will hand you their forks and say try this, or their drink to try and no one worries about cooties.
So communal chips? No biggie.
Oh, and I also walk around barefoot in gym showers and during my college days - I just live life on the edge.
Germs - come get me!

 

[Summer2018]

You don’t know any children who ever experienced a stomach bug? Interesting! It’s spread fecal to oral.

Not only a stomach bug, that's one of the ways to spread E coli. My friend's daughter almost died from kidney failure as a result of exposure to it. Her life nearly ended at the age of two.

I just don't understand what is so difficult about using basic safety practices. I use them at school and home. I am not a germaphobe nor do I have OCD. I just do simple things to prevent the spread of germs.

 

[mom2rtk]

I eat rare meat, raw cookie dough and thaw meat on the counter occasionally.

Raw cookie dough is one of life's great pleasures. Definitely worth the risk.

 

[Mermaid02]

I eat rare meat, raw cookie dough and thaw meat on the counter occasionally.

Quoting myself to add that I like my eggs over easy too.

 

[RedAngie]

{{sigh}} I didn't say I wouldn't eat it, just that I didn't prefer it. I wouldn't turn down your $100/lb Kobe filet for a little thing like that. We're still on for Friday, right?
(Oh and BTW $100/lb is the price for the generic yellow-label kind.)

Sure, you're still welcome on Friday night.

But I'm afraid you're deluded about the Kobe beef. It's for my cat only. Even <<I>> don't get to partake.

DisGuests are lucky to receive this.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I've gotten a kick out of reading the responses. When I was sitting down to the Little League lunch after the the "chip incident"...I KNEW this would be a perfect Dis topic!

 

[Klayfish]

Kissing for 10 seconds exchanges something like 80 million bacteria between partners. And I'm not stopping that.

I've been married for almost 20 years now, I almost forget what this is like.

We have a dog. The dog spreads a ridiculous amount of germs. Think about what dogs like to lick...

 

[Jennasis]

When you live and work on a farm, concern about cooties goes right out the window. I'm reminded about the time I had the vet out for one of my horses and needed her to collect a urine sample. I'd washed up and We had the horse tied up and were waiting for him to do his business but he just wouldn't go. So she and I took care of a few other horses while we waited...of course THAT's when he decides to drop trow and pee. So I panicked and ran over to him but the collection cup was nowhere to be found. So what's a girl to do?



yup.

When the vet finished laughing at me, she pulled the sample from my hands. She also called me later to tell me that the sample was tainted because my hands were dirty. So take that folks. Horse pee is cleaner than your hands even after you wash 'em.


And yes...I DID wash my hands afterwards. #farmlife

 

[mjkacmom]

You don’t know any children who ever experienced a stomach bug? Interesting! It’s spread fecal to oral.

My kids had tons of stomach bugs, colds, ear infections, and every childhood illness (fifths disease, coxsackie, tons of strep). However, once 5be6 hit 2nd grade or so, they were pretty much done getting sick, super strong immune systems. Ds15 recently had his appendix rupture, and since operating usually comes with very high risks of infection, the new protocol for otherwise healthy patients is to monitor closely and treat with high doses of IV antibiotics. Three days later, the infection was gone, and he came home.

 

[DLgal]

Chips are covered with salt. Salt prevents most germs from surviving very long. I would have eaten the chips. No problem.

 

[cabanafrau]

Does the opinion of others even amount to much in this situation? You did what suited your comfort level without impinging even a little on anyone else.

Live and let live. Maybe #Live and let Live is more appropriate/more meaningful?

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I probably wouldn't have any myself, but I'd let my kids.

I don't know what that says about me as a mother

I'm the same way, but I have gluten issues and immune issues. But my kid doesn't.

Fifteen years ago, I would have dumped some on my plate, and my kid's plate.

 

[princesspiglet]

I personally think you were being a little over the top, but, I am the exact opposite of a germaphobe. I wash my hands after using the bathroom, but that's about it! I don't do hand sanitizers, eat things off the floor, leave mac salad sitting out, defrost chicken on the counter, cook my pork medium and steak rare, reach into bags of chips, etc. Germs are probably the last thing on my mind and I am very healthy. Never get the flu shot and have never had the flu. Now my DD16 is a germaphobe and I have no idea where she got it from!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Ok, if we're telling work-related germ stories, I have a couple!

As a young nurse I was pulling an overnight shift. It was busy, but I finally found a minute to sit down to eat my salad. I had taken a bite or two when my patient's call bell rang. Nobody else was around, so I went in to answer it. The patient was a quadriplegic, i.e. he had no use of any of his extremities since he'd had an accident years before. When I went in, he said, "Can you pick my nose? " We had a conversation about blowing vs picking, but nope, he simply had to have his nose picked. So I went to the supply room, got some long handled "cotton applicators" (aka QTips), went back into his room, and started digging. Afterward, I came back and finished my salad, albeit somewhat reluctantly, lol.

I also worked in a bakery while I was in college. An old time baker told me the story of the time he came into work early one Sunday morning, still quite hungover from the night before. His first order of business was to make a rye bread dough in a huge mixer. As he was pouring in the rye, it made him sick, and he vomited right into the mixer. Rather than clean it out and start over, he just kept it going. So those who bought Rye bread that week got more than they bargained for.

I think that unless you make food yourself and know it's ok, there's a good chance it wasnt made under perfectly sanitary circumstances. We've all watched the shows and seen the articles on what goes on at restaurants and such... yet most of us survive the everyday germs...

I do agree that some germs can be deadly, but many of those are considered adulterants and should not be found in food. Picking up EColi 0157:H7 would be extremely unlikely from sharing a bag of chips - although with that thawing ground beef on the counter, many millions of the deadly bacteria can be found in a drop of blood and can produce a life-threatening infection. (If you do that, wash the area down well with Lysol wipes.)

People talk about eating raw hamburger when they were kids - that particular germ wasn't "discovered" until the 1980s when people started getting sick and dying from it. It is thought that it came about when cows' diet changed from grass to corn, and their intestines responded by producing this bacteria. It's interesting to read about. Anyway, PLEASE don't eat raw hamburger today. Or drink raw milk, for the same reason. (It's all related to cow intestinal contents, so yes, you're ingesting their poop - the former, which gets on meat during slaughter, and the latter gets into milk from the milking process, which then isn't pasteurized.) There are other ways to pick it up - petting zoos (same reason), sprouts and some other foods, which may be from harvesting or washing with runoff water where cows or others have pooped upstream. EColi is killed at 160 degrees - so if you're cooking, there's a good chance it will be killed. But raw food, like sprouts, do not have a kill step.

Food for thought on this lovely Monday morning!

 

[Allison]

And their response...

Congratulations! You get to host the next event.

I would have asked if they were offering to donate the individually bagged chips for the next event and then continued to do what I was doing.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Chips are covered with salt. Salt prevents most germs from surviving very long. I would have eaten the chips. No problem.

I was thinking that as well. Salty chips simply aren't a good growth medium.

Salt has been used for all of time as a preservative because it inhibits germ growth.

But re the chips, we really have to look at the big picture. Certain conditions would have to be met for there to be transmission of infection. For example, someone would have to be shedding something like the a Noro virus at that very moment, have pooped (if you can find somewhere to go on a baseball field ETA OP says there were no bathrooms on said field) and not cleansed hands properly just before lunch, reached into the bag and deposited germs on a chip that they didn't take, then another person would have to come along in the next ten seconds or so, take the chip he'd touched, and ingest it. Even then, whether there would be an actual infection would be pretty questionable. You have the salt which could potentially kill the virus. And players' hands are likely covered in dirt, which also may be protective in that it isn't a good growth medium for something like noro either - those need a host to survive. Summer also isn't high season for Noro. So I think when you look at it that way, risks are very low when eating these chips at this particular venue. It might be different inside at a party, during the winter, where bathrooms are readily available, if there's an outbreak of Noro going around, etc., although still, the likelihood of catching in an infection this way is probably pretty low.

Personally, I would've eaten the chips and my kids would've too. But I don't have a problem with people not eating them, or pouring some out from the bag, if that's what they want to do. We often have popcorn or chips at work, and what we do is keep a cup there for people to either pour their chips into, or reach in with (which I'm not so sure is perfect, either, since the cup itself is repeatedly being touched by various people). If we have unwrapped candy in a bowl, we keep a spoon in the dish so people can scoop out what they want without touching the candy itself (although the spoon, again, is repeatedly touched).