As a
piano teacher, many of my students are children. And as children are the
best bug-breeders around, I am
annually subject to many
diseases. Among them are
strep throat,
flu,
colds, and
upper respiratory infections of all sorts.
And, or course, it is the piano keyboard that is the source of these infections--retransmitting from their hands!
Over the course of the years I have learned, through bitter experience, a variety of things to do to reduce my chances of catching something (though I never get away without something). I call them my high infection protocol:
- Never touch my face until I have washed my hands.
- Never blow my nose until I have washed my hands.
- Never touch the piano keys.
- Never touch the students' hands.
- Wash my hands after every lesson, so I can do the above.
- Take zinc, and vitamin A every day.
- Try to sleep well every night.
- Get a flu shot every year.
- Keep happy.
The first four steps are very difficult--I usually need to rub my eyes, or blow my nose at the most inoportune time. But I can hardly take several days off everytime I get sick--and I don't want to get sick! It isn't fun.
When my father was in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, I seem to remember those same signs. In hospitals, of course, this is generally for the staff, so they won't infect the patients.
In my school, the teachers do this to protect themselves. Having been sick, we are cautious.