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Muppets, snot and swine flu

By Mark Cox
November 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm

I’ve always had an affinity with Sesame Street. Maybe it’s a lifetime of people saying ‘Shut up, you muppet’ every time I try to speak. Or perhaps it’s just having to look at my own gormless, baggy features in the mirror every day. Whatever the reason, I do so admire my cloth-covered, furry friends.

So imagine my unbridled joy when two of my heroes, Elmo and Rosita (I’ve always admired their work) recently did a public health advert for American TV titled: The right way to sneeze. Cox was dumbstruck.

After all, here was one of my personal loves (singing Sesame Street puppets) and a major part of my professional remit (telling people not to snot on their own hands and spread swine flu) coming together in perfect harmony.

As Elmo and Rosita’s masterful song clearly shows, the trick is to sneeze into the fold of your elbow rather than your hands. The thinking is that you’re then less likely to rub the inside of your elbow over a door handle, toilet flush, water tap or even someone else’s face. (Think about it: when was the last time you saw a couple sharing a tender moment in the street before he slowly stroked her cheek with the inside of his snotty elbow?)

Some naysayers among you might argue that two pieces of furry cloth propped up on wires would have precious little need to sneeze anyway, but that’s just undermining the subtlety and craft that these two fine actors put into their work. When Elmo sings ‘Sneeze right there in the bendy place’, it gets me every time…

And in light of my recent blog that featured a lurgy woman liberally applying phlegm all over the handrail of a crowded train, here’s a question: what’s the most extreme example of germ-spreading that you’ve encountered lately?

Winner gets a used tissue.

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Tags: emergency response, First aid, first aid tips, swine flu

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Emergencies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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