A nurse in the US has demonstrated how fast germs can spread even if you're wearing gloves.
Michigan-based Molly Lixey posted a video to Facebook after she visited a supermarket and noticed a lot of people were wearing gloves - but a lot of them were unintentionally cross-contaminating.
While wearing surgical gloves and by using paint, Lixey showed how quick it is for germs to spread when people are out and about.
In her video she pretends she's going to the supermarket and begins by putting on gloves, picking up her phone as she leaves her car, cleaning a trolley and grabbing toilet paper. She uses a piece of cardboard as her phone and dips her fingers in the paint to simulate the germs she picked up from touching the toilet paper.
"But it's [the germs] on my gloves, that's fine right? It's on my gloves. But now I'm walking along and my phone rings, so I've now touched my hands together a couple of times, I reach for my phone and oh I have a text message from my husband."
Lixey then continues to pretend she's shopping and picks up new items to buy. She continues to put her fingers in the paint to imitate picking up germs while at the supermarket.
After she picks up a pretend phone call the paint ends up on her cheek, showing that the germs have now travelled to her face.
But even once she removes her gloves, Lixey uses her germ-ridden phone which results in cross-contamination.
"There's no point in wearing gloves if you're not going to wash your hands every time you touch something," she said in her video.
She said unless people disinfect their phones, the germs will travel to their hands and face even once gloves are removed.
"So one, go ahead and wear your gloves, but you need to clean your hands all the time. Don't touch your face, don't touch your dirty phone," Lixey said. "Secondly, throw your gloves in the trash. They do not belong in the parking lot on the ground."
Lixey recommends people do "whatever makes them feel safe", but to also be aware of the science behind how germs spread.
