"I gave Reingold two scenarios. The first: I'm sitting in a movie theater next to -- but not touching -- someone with H1N1, and he sneezes and doesn't cover his mouth. The second: Someone with H1N1 rubs his nose, shakes my hand, and then I rub my nose. In which situation am I more likely to catch the flu?
That's easy, said Reingold, an infectious disease specialist who advises on vaccine policy for the World Health Organization. The theater incident is much more likely -- much, much more likely, he said -- to give me the flu, since inhaling particles results in a bigger dose of the virus."
Both scenarios make my skin crawl, but I really thought the nose rubbing and hand shaking one would be worse. Nope. I was wrong. Then, armed with this wonderful tidbit of information, I proceeded to get onto 2 different subway trains, FULL of people. Ugh. Gross. I was just WAITING, WAITING for someone to cough or sneeze without covering his/her mouth. AHHHHH!
*Sigh. This winter is going to be TOTALLY creepy and gross for me every time I ride the train. HA HA HA. OCD is really helpful in cities like New York.
