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How the 'Sleeve It Alone' campaign could help slow the spread of COVID-19

The concept is a simple one, but it could keep you from getting sick.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A doctor has started a new internal campaign to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and he’s hoping the movement will keep others from getting the virus. Dr. Robert Graziano, the president of the Radiological Society of New Jersey, sent an email to his colleagues with the idea for the campaign over the weekend.

After watching multiple videos and interviews about COVID-19, Dr. Graziano realized how often we touch our faces. In one video he watched. Dr. Graziano said he watched medical students trained in infectious disease prevention touch their faces 23 times in an hour.

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If they’re doing it – you know we’re doing it.

The “Sleeve It Alone” campaign aims to turn the bad habit of touching our faces into a new habit that’s safer. The basic idea is that when you feel the urge to touch or scratch your face, you use the back of your sleeve instead of your hand.

Even if you do a good job of washing your hands, they’re always touching different surfaces that might be infected. The back of you sleeve, however, likely hasn’t been exposed to nearly as much. Dr. Graziano said he's been using this trick for two years and he calls his sleeve his “own personal glove."

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If we can make this a habit, it could be something that helps us far beyond this pandemic. Dr. Graziano is convinced the habit has helped him avoid more common colds in the past year.

So, the next time you feel an itch on your face, think about Dr. Graziano and “Sleeve It Alone!”

Contact reporter Daniel Sechtin at dsechtin@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

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