The Daily Scroll: A Mentorship Recap – October 15th, 2020 Show Notes

Kay:

Hey, hey, Questers, and welcome back! It’s Thursday, October 15th, and this is Episode 204. It’s also Global Handwashing Day, so – (you bet!) – today we’re talking all about…

Kay & Shi:

Handwashing!

Shi:

All right, today’s quote is a little bit unusual, but hey, we’re going with it. It’s a quote from our restaurant’s training manual over at the Squeeze In. And so, right inside of our training manual, you can find this incredibly deep quote.

Kay:

DEEP.

Shi:

“Sing happy birthday, two times over, while washing with warm water.”

Kay:

Exactly.

Shi:

Drop the mic. We’re actually just going to be silent for the next five minutes while you let that soak in, the brevity, the depth. Okay. Okay…It’s not that profound. It’s obviously a good old fashioned reminder about handwashing, but you might not know the story and the history behind handwashing, and it is fascinating.

Kay:

When we found out just how handwashing went down – and how recently it was actually embraced within our society – we were mind blown at the evolution of this incredibly important medical and sanitary practice that we didn’t really do much about until the 1980s.

Shi:

1980s…It is so nuts! And, here’s the thing: 1846 is when the correlation was first confirmed in medical science. 1846. And the first public campaign to encourage hand washing didn’t happen until 1980, 140 years later.

Kay:

Oh, my goodness. Well, in 1846, Ignaz Semmelweis, in Vienna, found this correlation between infant mortality in his ward at the hospital in regards to doctors that were not washing their hands before delivering children. So doctors would go in and do an autopsy and then deliver a baby. And many of the times, the child would have some issue, and they would pass away shortly thereafter. And so, what happened is Ignaz made it mandatory for all doctors to wash their hands before delivering babies, and the mortality rates in the hospital dropped dramatically. It was a dramatic difference. But doctors were so offended by the findings, and the evidence, and the accusation that they could have been complicit in the death of some of their patients, that when they were even presented with the evidence, they continued to NOT wash their hands in protest – saying that they had never done anything wrong in the first place.

Shi:

So what happens over the next 100 years is that – slowly but surely – handwashing becomes more and more of a regular occurrence within the medical industry, within hospitals, and within medical providing locations. But it takes 100 years, into the 1940s, for people to widely accept these findings. I mean, just think of all of the tragic losses that could have been prevented in that meantime. But this is such a great demonstration for us to understand how things evolve so slowly, socially and throughout our society.

Kay:

So slow.

Shi:

And (B.), how recent of a thing this is! In fact, as millennials, we’re that first generation to have fully grown up with handwashing being proactively campaigned for and given the gold stamp of approval. And it’s shocking to think how recent that really is.

Kay:

Right? And while, in the 1980s, the CDC launched the first-ever public handwashing campaign. And after the US did it and saw a dramatic decrease in infections and in people’s cases of diarrhea, that many other countries ended up following suit. In fact, hand washing can reduce the number of people who get sick with diarrhea from 23 to 40%. So a huge decrease in the amount of gastrointestinal issues, which, if you think about on a grand scale, the amount of laborers that are missing work because of gastrointestinal issues, and the amount of teachers that are staying home, is a lot. The amount of people that can’t do whatever it is that they need to get done because they’re home with a sickness that could have been prevented with handwashing. So, we see this emerge in the 1980s. But WOW, it took a long time.

Shi:

I know, there’s obviously been a lot of focus on handwashing here in 2020. I am seeing it extremely evident in my three children going to elementary school right now during the middle of a quarantine. Handwashing is a cornerstone staple of their classroom activities. They do not leave or enter the classroom without forming a line and spending 10 minutes washing their hands. And every kid washes their hands for at least 20 seconds. Now, it takes a long time, but this is the protocol in a year like 2020. And look at what the results are telling us about combining the three things of handwashing, mask-wearing, and social distancing. It’s really having an impact and a difference on the lives we’re actually saving and it’s something so simple to do. And then, to think about this crazy journey that it’s taken for humanity to get here on something that’s so obvious…It’s just very telling. So, here on Global Handwashing Day, to remind you of this profound quote from our own restaurant’s training manual, “Sing happy birthday, two times over, while washing with warm water.”

Kay:

Which means – today you’ve got a handwashing quest! If you are a routine hand-washer, way to go! Go ahead and pat that clean, clean hand on your back, way to go. And if you’re someone who could use more suds in your life, today’s your day to shine! Today, be sure to wash your hands at the very bare minimum of three times.

Shi:

You can do it.

Kay:

Are you ready?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!

Shi:

Let’s wash!

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