With more lenient regulations on handling the COVID pandemic every day, more people are leaving behind early strategies to fight the virus. The most damaging strategy being left behind, its dismissal even could be seen as a pandemic in WS in itself, is not washing hands properly. 

“[Someone not washing their hands right] happens 50% of the time whenever I go to the bathroom,” said Senior Mackenzie Allen. “It’s disgusting.”

Even though knowledge of the proper way of washing one’s hands was something pushed massively only at the time of the pandemic (whereas it was otherwise assumed one would know), it still carries a lot of usage in our daily lives, such as protection from germs, stopping the spread of illness, staying healthy, and of course; maintaining proper hygiene.

Despite all this information about the benefits of washing one’s hands properly, students are still reporting patterns of seeing their fellow classmates spending less than 10 seconds doing so, not using soap, etc. 

“It’s really gross how fast people stopped caring,” said senior Thalia Edwards.

For the greater good of the public and the betterment of hygiene for all, here are five steps given by the CDC on how to wash one’s hands.

The first step is to wet one’s hand under the water for about a second or two and then apply soap. This is done to make sure the next step of the process is easier and that one’s hands are actually cleansed, as soap is quite crucial to the process. 

The next step would be to lather the hands up by rubbing each hand with the soap, as previously mentioned. Do not neglect any part of the hands; make sure to get in between each finger, side of the hands, nail, etc., as it’s called washing one’s hands not palms or fingers.

This is the part where there needs to be more effort and care being put into the hands, as this step requires for the hands to be scrubbed for at least 20 seconds without water. This step, in particular, is something that not students tend to ignore because of the time it takes for it to be done, but it can be exciting or fun if done customizable to you. Instead of counting to 20, sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday twice, or even the chorus of “Oops…I did it again” by Britney Spears.

Lastly, it’s finally time to rinse the hands and dry them off, a step that gets jumped right into far too quickly by students. Make sure both the water and towel used are clean and warm, as it would defeat the purpose of washing hands in the first place.

Make sure to complete these steps after eating, handling waste, caring for a wound, and arguably the most important time; using the bathroom. Still, students like Edwards don’t believe this needs to be made clear to students.

“We’re in high school; we’ve been over this before,” said Edwards, “We don’t need to go over this.”