THE WASHINGTON POST – Habitual nose picking is associated with an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus, researchers in the Netherlands found.
A new study, published Wednesday in PLOS ONE, showed that nearly 85 percent of 219 health-care workers surveyed reported picking their noses with varying frequencies — monthly, weekly or daily.
Of those, about 17 percent contracted the coronavirus, compared with about 6 percent of those who said they did not engage in the activity.
The risk was relatively the same for all nose pickers, the researchers said, regardless of how often they did it.
The researchers had studied the increased risk of coronavirus contraction among health-care workers in 2020 and wanted to know what may have led to it.
In the recent study, they decided to look at behaviors that conflict with health guidelines — wearing beards, biting nails and picking schnozzles.
“It was quite funny to investigate,” said Jonne J. Sikkens, an internal medicine specialist and clinical epidemiologist at Amsterdam University Medical Center, who led the study. On a more serious note, “it was surprising how it may affect transmission,” he said … READ MORE.
