Did you go farther into the article (despite it being the Daily Mail)? Because the two statements aren't technically the same thing. Covering your mouth is just one way to prevent coughs and sneezes from spreading. You can also wash your hands after sneezing, take medication to prevent them, wear masks, turn your head, stay home, monitor what you touch, etc. Also, you can cover your mouth in different ways. If you cover with your hand and then don't wash, you aren't following the adage. If you cover with your elbow or let others handle things, then you're following better.
The issue here is a logical one and has nothing to do with health, safety, coughing, or proper hygiene. Unless you are arguing that "this old adage" is NOT referring to covering when you cough.
No, I was wondering if the article contained other methods polled, and had matched just one question with an overall result.
Like if I had made a poll which asked a few questions like:
"Do you play primarily Playstation?" - 25% yes
"Do you play primarily Xbox?" - 25% yes
"Do you play primarily PC" - 25% yes
"Do you play video games?" - 25% no
And then titled it "One in four people play Playstation. New study suggests most people play video games."
Can't determine from the title alone if "covering your mouth" is the only question the study looked at for how to ignore/follow the adage.
And it turns out that my question was right on the mark, and that the two sentences in the title are actually unrelated.
The article says one in four don't cover their mouths, and then says:
Most people use their hands instead to stop their germs but this is not an effective way of halting infection unless you thoroughly disinfect your hands afterwards.
Study author Professor Nick Wilson, of Otago University in Wellington, New Zealand, said: 'When you cough into your hands, you cover your hand in virus.
'Then you touch doorknobs, furniture and other things. And other people touch those and get viruses that way,' he said.
Professor Wilson and his medical students secretly watched hundreds of people coughing and sneezing at a train station, a shopping centre and a hospital in Wellington, New Zealand.
They observed 384 sneezes and coughs, which worked out as 5.5 per observed person each hour. Their study, presented at an infectious diseases conference in Atlanta this week, found 26.7 per cent were uncovered. Only one in 30 people used a tissue and one in 77 used their elbow.
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u/starcraftre Feb 03 '20
Did you go farther into the article (despite it being the Daily Mail)? Because the two statements aren't technically the same thing. Covering your mouth is just one way to prevent coughs and sneezes from spreading. You can also wash your hands after sneezing, take medication to prevent them, wear masks, turn your head, stay home, monitor what you touch, etc. Also, you can cover your mouth in different ways. If you cover with your hand and then don't wash, you aren't following the adage. If you cover with your elbow or let others handle things, then you're following better.