It’s no surprise that we’re being more conscious about keeping our hands clean amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new poll shows how it’s taking its toll on our mitts as well as our minds.
The non-scientific survey of 2,000 Americans commissioned by Muse Health — which, not coincidentally, makes hand sanitizer — shows that the average respondent washed their hands 10 times a day, and applied hand sanitizer as many as eight times.
In fact, nearly a quarter of those polled say they’ve washed and sanitized so much that their fingers bled from being so dried out.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents say they use hand sanitizer after touching door handles, shopping carts, ATMs and the like, but 22% say they even use it after touching surfaces in their own homes and cars.
Maybe that’s why 60% of those polled confessed they panic when they leave their homes without their trusty bottle of sanitizer.
Forty-four percent say the pandemic has even made them squeamish about holding hands with their significant other, meaning keeping clean is taking a toll on their relationships, too.
No surprise, then, that 65% admitted the pandemic has turned them into “a bit of a germaphobe.”