WHY CHINA IS A HOTBED FOR DISEASE

If you stare at this picture of bathroom sinks from my school for a minute, you might notice that something crucial is missing. Not only is it missing from this bathroom, but it's also missing from just about every bathroom I've ever used in China. SOAP. Generally, people in China don't use soap when washing their hands. Not that I've observed at least: not after using the bathroom, not before a meal, not after using public transportation. What's most disturbing is that even some restaurants don't have soap for their employees. I know this because many of the places where we eat have bathrooms without sinks, so we have to use their kitchens to wash up. No soap. People are touching raw meats and then not washing their hands with soap. The lack of soap is the first problem that enables diseases to spread here in China. 

The second problem is that Chinese don't as a habit cover their mouths or noses when coughing or sneezing. Yes, when people sneeze here in China, their snot and germs are let loose into the air for all to enjoy. I'd like to stress that I'm not exaggerating here. People rarely even bow their heads for a sneeze. And as you might imagine, in a country with terrible air quality, people sneeze and cough quite a bit here, so the air is a constant mix of pollution and germs. In addition to not covering their noses and mouths, spitting and blowing snot rockets are also popular. Spitting is self-explanatory, though I should mention it is extremely common and done just about everywhere; on buses, in restaurants, and even in the classroom. The snot rocket might not be as well known. A snot rocket is achieved by briefly plugging the nose and blowing to build pressure, then removing the hand which causes snot to shoot from the nose. Walking down a public street here you are sure to witness a few snot rockets. The other day I watched a man try to snot rocket on a rat. He was not successful. And here is one final gem. Many men here grow their pinkie nail out on one hand, similar to the "coke" nail back in the States. But instead of aiding illicit drug use, this nail is commonly used to clean their ears. It pretty common to see a man on the subway digging in their ear with this nail, then removing it and investigating. The first time I saw it I thought it was a practical joke until I realized that no one around him seemed to be repulsed by it.

So if you consider that all these bad habits are quite common throughout a country of more than a billion people, and you add the fact that government regulation is a joke and that businesses are typically unscrupulous, it is no wonder that there is a new strain of bird flu currently spreading across China. What is crazy to me is that something as obvious as a government led campaign to educate people about washing their hands with soap and water is not the immediate response.