It’s a key piece of advice to slow the spread of coronavirus, but DAMN it’s hard to do. These 13 tips should help.

By Rose Kennedy, for the AJC

While the No. 1 strategy is to avoid close contact with infected people, according to the CDC, the virus can also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces. To halt that line of infection, the CDC wants you to wash your hands, use hand sanitizer when soap and water aren't at the ready, and [avoid touching your face with unwashed hands] …because "it's possible to pick up COVID-19 after touching something an infected person touched, then touching your own eyes, nose, or mouth," Debra Jaliman, MD, board-certified dermatologist and American Academy of Dermatology spokesperson told Health. 

Note that none of these experts says it's easy to stop touching your dang face. Keep in mind, touching your face is a human habit, not some character weakness. One landmark study of 26 medical students in 2015 found that each subject touched his or her face 23 times an hour on average.

And a study published in the PLOS ONE journal in 2019 asserted that
"every human being spontaneously touches its eyes, cheeks, chin and mouth
manifold every day. These spontaneous facial self-touches (sFST) are elicited
with little or no awareness... Self-touch frequency has been shown to be
influenced by negative affect and attention distraction and may be involved in
regulating emotion and working memory functions." 

This is why simply telling people not to do it isn’t very effective. Read the full story here for 13 expert tips to help you keep your paws off your lovely face: https://bit.ly/ajc-touchingface

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