Nose-picking hospital staff helped spread Covid-19

It's not just kids who do it, adult healthcare workers admitted to picking their noses too, despite wearing face masks. — dpa

It is widely seen as a bad-mannered and unhygienic habit that can leave the perpetrator red-faced if caught in the act.

Some studies have also flagged it as unhealthy as it can introduce alien bacteria to the nasal passages and spread unwanted germs in the opposite direction.

As if nose-picking was not enough of a no-no already, new research suggests that it may also contribute the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In a survey of Netherlands-based hospital workers by Amsterdam University Medical Centre and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, more than 80% of those who responded admitted to picking their nose.

For those health workers who managed to sneak a finger up a nostril despite wearing a face mask – and despite working in a hospital – the habit seems to have left them three times as likely to have picked up Covid-19, according to the survey, which was published in the medical journal PLOS One.

More than 17% of self-reported nose-pickers said they caught the virus, making them potential spreaders in turn, but only 5.9% of those who claimed otherwise, leaving the researchers to conclude that "nose-picking among HCW (healthcare workers) was associated with an increased risk of contracting a SARS-CoV-2 infection".

The survey also asked about beard-growing, wearing glasses and biting fingernails, but found no apparent association with Covid-19.

While the Amsterdam survey results might come as a shock to those who trust medics and hospitals to be bastions of hygiene, more than 90% of people admitted to picking their nose in an oft-cited 1995 American survey. – dpa