Be careful who you shake hands with

This report from New Zealand:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10474966

Apparently a study conducted in New Zealand shows that up to 20% of men don't wash their hands after going to the toilet. The figures are consistent with results from other studies around the world. In addition, 7% of women don't wash their hands after going to the toilet.

If you watch TV for an hour you will be hard pressed to not see an ad for kitchen and bathroom cleaners. And what do these ads focus on? The fact that your kitchen and bathroom are hives of filth and bacterial decadence. Unbeknownst to you, these sensitive areas of your home are alive with danger. And if you don't use their products you are putting your entire family at risk.

But what this study tells you, is you can buy all the heavy duty, antiseptic, hospital strength cleaners on the market, but for every 5 males who either lives in your house or visits it, there is one dirty little individual who doesn't wash his hands, and is therefore a conduit for disease.

So, you have a party and invite 20 people, 10 males and 10 females. Playing the odds, 2/10 of the males, and 1/10 of the females, will be non-post-toilet-handwashers. So you have three people loose at your party, who are spreading germs directly from your toilet to whatever they touch, which includes communal food plates, your TV remote or your children. In fact, if you shook their hand when they walked in, you have inadvertently welcomed the fruits of their bad hygiene onto your own skin. Very nice of you.


The other thing this article fails to address is the report a few years ago, that automatic hand dryers make your hands dirtier than before you washed them, because they get dirty and then harbour bacteria that they then spray back onto your hands.

And for that matter, there was a report that said after you wash your hands, the act of touching the tap to turn it off, also introduces huge numbers of germs to your skin.

So what's the solution?

1. Don't invite males to your parties. They are 3 times more likely to be non-post toilet handwashers than females.

2. In total, 1 in 7 people that you come into contact with, doesn't wash their hands after they go to the toilet. You can't really tell, because asking them will probably lead to denial, so you really are just better off minimising your contact with other people.

3. Carry around antiseptic to spray on your hands, any surfaces you come into contact with, other people's hands and miscellaneous household pets and children that cross your path.

4. Investigate the practicality of wearing a self-contained space-suit to minimise content with airborne particles. Be sure to sterilise the helmet before wearing it.

5. If you wash your hands, dont turn off the tap, because its dirty. Leave it running. Or ask someone else to turn it off for you. Don't shake their hands afterwards to thank them, especially if they are male.

6. Don't use automatic hand dryers. Instead, wipe your hands on your clothes. Unless they have been exposed to airborne disease, which they have been.

Expensive words

This from the BBC today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7086474.stm

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been paid $500,000 for a speech he has made in China. Now, my first response is, that must have been one hell of a speech. Sadly not. It was described as like "listening to some domestic county or city-level official". Ouch. It was also described as containing "nothing new". Double ouch.

Which leads me to ponder the question, if you were asked to give a speech for $500,000, how could you possibly plan to say something that would make your audience feel like they had got value for money?

It's one thing if you are someone with renowned charisma and gravitas. If people already know you as an amazing speaker, some of your work will already have been done for you. Like him or loathe him, Bill Clinton has a reputation for being an excellent and engaging speaker. I have not heard Tony Blair speak, and from what I know although he is a good public speaker, he aint no Clinton. So, if your reputation doesn't precede you, you
really need to make sure that the message stands out.

From the feedback he received, it sounds like Mr Blair didnt stand out...at all. I want to know how a former PM of a country in the thick of world affairs, can end up sounding like a domestic county official. Did he talk about rat catching, subsidised transport for the elderly or building a new playground? Was his vision limited by the new plan for recycling in Guangdong?

So, also bearing in mind, they thought he contributed nothing new, what could he have provided for $500,000?

1. Insights into his prime ministerial career
2. Tabloid gossip about the current prime minister
3. A new car for each member of the audience
4. He could have got Bill Clinton to give the speech

Pay rises for Doctors

This article interested me today:

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3115515.ece

It talks about family doctors in the UK. Apparently they are paid a lump sum to manage their practices. After hiring staff, and other running costs, they keep the rest to themselves. Sounds fair, but apparently not. Because, doctors have been running their practices for cheaper and pocketing the difference. Shock! Horror! This means that their average salary has increased on average by 10% in the last year.

Furthermore, the writer of the article expresses disbelief as to how this could have happened:

"You might expect bankers to increase their profit margins but it is hard to understand how it could happen with doctors."

WHY? Why is it so hard to believe that a doctor would want more money? Are doctors removed from society? Are they not vulnerable to the same forces that others are? What we no doubt see in society is a more money orientated culture. People are no longer content to provide services for the intrinsic pleasure of it. They want money for it. People write books, not only for the pleasure of entertaining people, they want multi-million dollar book deals.

If these forces are affecting all people in society, it is without doubt that they will affect doctors. And they are. And why shouldnt they be affected. Its a rosy, nostalgic view that doctors are kind hearted souls doing it for the love of patients. Rubbish. Doctors choose to do medicine because:

1. Its supposed to be a secure job.
2. It is the degree smart people are expected to study
3. Peer pressure
4. Parental Pressure
5. Prestige and Status
6. Supposed financial returns

What doctors do discover once they graduate, is that the jobs are no longer secure. Patients are more likely to complain than thank them. And their friends who scraped through university with a classics degree are now making four times more than them working in the City.
And doctors want to live in nice houses, and drive nice cars, and society's perception of them is that they should because they are high earning doctors.

So when the writer of the article speculates:

"It suggests that the sums injected into general practice, and the rest of the NHS, over the past five years – £45bn extra in total – have been so huge that they have been beyond the capacity of the average doctor to spend, and so have ended up in their pockets by default."

They have really missed the point. It is easy to see why doctors will try and grab as much money as they can. They are just like everyone else.