Mythbusters did a segment that showed the air dryers are more likely to spread germs. So it's just awful all around

I mean unless the air blowing on your hands was freshly filtered and uv sterilized that is going to be an issue to.

Any handle or surface in public areas, assume the person that handled it before you had just finished taking a monster shit and skipped the handwashing before rubbing their pathogen-factories all over it. Photo in OP, there's not really a good option, so you're in damage control mode... check for toilet seat liners that some public restrooms stock and grab one of them? At least that's something the other people handle before getting shit all over their hands.

One of the nastiest assignments I've had working in a hospital was 'Handwashing Monitor'. And let me tell you, I've debrided infected wounds; wiped maggots out of some fucker's pannus; cleaned up every bodily fluid our bodies are capable of cranking out from the floor, walls, and sometimes ceiling; helped amputate limbs that were literally rotten to the bone, and wiped a cumulative mile or two of ass crack...

...apply to nursing school today!!...

...but anyway, Handwashing Monitor. It is beyond appalling the number of patients, visitors, techs, nurses, doctors, housekeepers, you name it... who'd go in and out of patient rooms without performing hand hygiene; or they'd wash their hands, but for like half a second; or not use soap; or turn the faucet on with their grimy-ass hands, do a thorough handwash, then immediately contaminate themselves by grabbing that same dirty-ass faucet with their bare hands to turn it off. The thing that made that position take the crown above all the other examples I gave in the previous paragraph was the realization that the community who is THE single most painfully aware of pathogens and their origins / mechanism of spreading... can't even wash their fucking hands!

...which brings us back to my opening sentence: it's not advice on sheer ick factor, but a reasonable assumption based on directly observed evidence.

And no, this wasn't just a particularly icky hospital: I've worked in multiple states for multiple organizations/facilities, and to this day get eye-rolls for asking people to re-wash or even first-wash their hands.

We nasty. Be a germaphobe. End rant.

Obviously it doesn't work on these types of doors, but I really liked the foot grips that were installed on bathroom doors at the height of the pandemic. It makes no sense to me why they were removed

Turns out businesses don’t care about cleanliness or your safety beyond the point where it might affect their bottom line and just install touchless sinks and hand dryers to save money on water and paper towels

This is why I love those things at the bottom of the door that lets you open the door with your foot.

I've had contamination OCD for the majority of my life, and this shit has been torture for me.

I've been trying to get a ADA accommodation to work from home because my job is in software, but the bastards over at HR think that clorox wipes and a dedicated cube will solve this shit. It's irritating as fuck that nobody in charge seems capable of piecing basic hygiene together.

This wouldn't be a problem if people actually washed their hands.

Grab the handle with your butt cheeks. it's a talent/skill you can hone

Use your elbow, or your foot.

I know the pain, but both of those touchless options always suck. The water never stays on or doesn’t turn on unless you motion in one specific weird spot that’s either too close or too far away. And those dryers never dry your hands well enough. I’m grateful they never had touchless doors in the same way.

Though I have seen newer foot style doors that have a small piece of metal at the bottom you can “grab” and pull open.

Touchless sinks are the worst fucking tech ever. Shit never works, and when it does, it never gives you enough water to get a good hand wash

How am I supposed to trap a velociraptor in the bathroom with a handle like that?

Yess so you go into the stall and grab some shit tickets so you don't have to touch the door handle and then Ooop they didn't put a trashcan anywhere near the door.

I understand not everyone is gonna shell out for a hook so you can operate the door with your foot, but at least put a trash can in throwing distance of the door so I don't have to touch the nasty ass handle with my clean hands.

I would simply pinch the handle between my absolute dumptruck bootycake cheeks

This thread renforces my theory that hygienism is a bastard of capitalism. So much useless worries but in the same time so lucrative

This is why I always bring two dinosaur grabbers. One for me cock, and one for the door.

There are plenty of ways to make this better. Most of it's theater because there's nothing really wrong with touching the door, but some of the ways are not even expensive to make it comfortable for germaphobes.

Single bathroom doors always swing out

Copper-plate the handles

If you have to swing in, add a foot handle.

Geez I guess some people never go outside into the world of germs

This reminds me of a sign I saw at a restaurant bathroom recently.

The bathrooms outside the lobby in my work building take this automatic crap a step further, with automatic soap machines. It's hit or miss if any given one will have soap at all. (Thankfully, we have another sink inside my work itself that employees can use, but guests are fucked.)

Then when they do dispense soap, it's the foam shit. So it looks like the sink just spit into my hands. Lovely.

If you simply cut your hands off these petty grievances will become a distant memory.

If even the doors stop touching me, what will I have left?

In the University of Bremen it's full of big red buttons everywhere to avoid touching handles.

just stand there and wait until somebody comes in, like everyone does

Elbow for the doors and whatever I'm wearing for drying.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/...

Shout out to S shaped hallway with no doors 😭you're the real mvp

LOLNEIN has this catchy song about exactly that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdESLgw7z5Y

in 2020, i learned that hands are not needed for opening and closing things

Even better if the door opens touchless on payment from the outside but has a handle to pull on the inside.

The most disgusting thing in that situation is your belt buckle. It could be the fly on your pants, but I assume those get washed every once in awhile.

This (and a lot of other reasons) is why I carry a handkerchief.

Your restrooms don't have automatic doors?

Anecdotal evidence but, the most common touch-less features in a bath room are the dryer and soap, the two things you only ever touch once and when you are not in a transitional phase.

The sink I tend to find is usually a handle you have to physically touch, when dirty and when clean, it is such a waste. Bring back the Elementary School foot pedals for sinks (and toilets for flushing).

I randomly mentioned that if I ever find a used Hospital Surgery Scrub Sink, I will repurpose an area in the house just to use it.

And lazy shits who leave paper towels on the floor by the door.

Now don't say that, we're gonna have touchless doors that don't work for dark skinned folks and too excited to open for white people passing by

The best is no door at all - like at airports where there’s just a barrier wall you have to walk around. I was about to say it’s not something you can do in every setting, but that’s only because we aren’t willing to dedicate the space to it.

My shoe works just fine.

Fun fact! As long as the soap inside the dispenser works as it should it literally doesnt matter if it is touch or how covered in germs it is.

Chop your hands off, germ phobia problem solved.

Ah yes, the final boss after washing your hands 😭

Ever since Covid, I have opened doors with handles like that using my pinky finger because I don’t use that for anything important, especially not touching my face and it helps minimize the spread of germs

Why do they call them "handles" when you are supposed to open them with your foot?

Well, that's why you grab one or two wads of TP and stick them halfway in a pocket before you reach the sink. If the establishment isn't smart enough to put a trash can near the door, they have obviously chosen to have wads of semi wet TP on the floor.

Who cares?

I lift my leg up and use the bottom of my shoe. You're welcome.

Unless there's something super contagious (e.g. COVID) going around you're not going to get sick from a door handle. Stop being an irrational germaphobe.