As the COVID-19 coronavirus occupies headlines, health experts keep reminding the public one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread is simply by properly washing your hands. The sad reality is that it seems like there are a lot of people that don't know how to properly wash their hands, which is just as important when it comes to the prevention of spreading cold and flu germs as well as bugs like E. coli when cooking.

The ongoing recommendation is to thoroughly wash the entirety of the surface of your hands with soapy water for 20-30 seconds. There is a bit of a debate about water temperature. While the long-standing standard has been water as hot as you can tolerate, the CDC says the important part is that it is clean, running water. In their guidelines for proper hand washing, warm or cold water are offered as options. The running, clean water component, the length of time, and being thorough with your scrubbing (front and back of hands, between fingers, finger tips, under finger nails, etc.) are the vital parts of the equation.

When it comes to duration, the CDC offers humming the "Happy Birthday" song from beginning to end twice. Alternatively, some recommend reciting the whole alphabet song in your head. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been some other song recommendations floated around as options. Now there is a website that gives you the opportunity to make your very own, perfectly-timed hand washing song by using lyrics from your favorite tune.

The website WashYourLyrics.com allows you to simply plug in the song title and artist for your favorite tune, and it will generate a printable sheet with the right amount of lyrics from the song to wash your hands for the right amount of time - PLUS, it gives you the step-by-step process on how to thoroughly wash your hands.

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I tried it with a bunch of random songs from various genres, and it generally came up with good results. Most of them lean on the hook/chorus, while not all of them do. Some songs didn't work at all, but it generally did. Here are a couple examples:

Just remember, this is a good idea all of the time. Not just because of the coronavirus. ;)

 

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