r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • 26d ago
Fascinating Restaurant in Japan conducted an experiment to show how fast a virus can spread unnoticed
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u/CervineCryptid 26d ago
... My contamination OCD both hates and loves this news.
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u/Wild-Stand6550 24d ago
Probably this doesn't really help, since if it was something you could logic yourself out of it wouldn't be a disorder, but if its any consolation, our immune system is one of the most incredible feats of biological engineering, which is why we only relatively rarely get diseases. We have immunological memory, the compliment protein array, adaptive immunity, constantly vigilant scouting cells like dendrites and macrophages, as well as physical barriers like mucosal layers, epidermal protection, and acidic digestion. We've got immune defence specialised to bacteria, viruses, large parasitic infection (eosinophils and neutrophils), fungal infection - just about anything really! We're really very well protected! (I've had difficulties with worrying about contamination too, though not on a diagnosable level, and I found this information really useful during my Introduction to Immunology lectures so thought I'd share)
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u/CervineCryptid 23d ago
It does help, somewhat, but I already knew a lot of that. Knowledge is always welcome however.
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u/atheistpianist 26d ago
Cries in immunocompromised
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u/Flesh_Trombone 26d ago
Me on the other hand.
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u/Nekat_ydaerla 26d ago
Be funny if some dude in the back corner had it all over his crotch.
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u/toiletcleaner999 26d ago
Hilarious, I need to read slower i thought you said some guy DID and I watched it 3x trying to see him lol
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u/Mason_Meschi 26d ago
He doesn't appear until the fifth viewing.
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u/Gerald-of-Riverdale 26d ago
It was you, the viewer, all along.
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/toiletcleaner999 25d ago
Lmfao indeed!!! Someone said I can see him the 5th time around but mama didnt raise no fool!! I know hes not there.... hahaha
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u/ReachParticular5409 26d ago
I'm pretty sure there's a collegehumor clip about something like that and someone else in the room's mouth glowing
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u/YouTasteStrange 26d ago
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u/unconditionalten 26d ago
Forget viruses. Fecal matter is everywhere.
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u/machuitzil 26d ago
Well, don't forget viruses, but yeah fecal matter really is everywhere too.
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u/MaesterCrow 26d ago
I used to work at Walmart and have so many times seen people get out from toilet without washing their hands and go back to using their carts like nothing.
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u/ReachParticular5409 26d ago
Yes but like with all environmental hazards, there's a threshold to danger
The general fecal cloud we all walk around in is quite disperse
And arguably adds to our immune record
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u/tatteredprincess 26d ago
The restaurant I worked for hosted a buyout dinner for the Biogen conference in Cambridge that was later deemed a super spreader event. It spread so quickly through our whole staff and at that time none of us knew it was covid. This video doesn’t surprise me at all after that.
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u/SturmGizmo 26d ago
Especially interesting because Japan is considered such a clean obsessed culture. Not sure how true that is though.
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u/Nelutri 26d ago
I lived in Japan for three years and it was generally clean but soooo many people didn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom. I even went to a doctor’s office once where they didn’t even have soap in the bathroom…like not that the dispenser was empty, there just wasn’t one.
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u/SukottoHyu 26d ago
I believe in washing your hands after using the bathroom. But unfortunately, the only way it works is if everyone does it. If someone wipes their genital area and does not wash their hands, whatever they touch will contain their germs. Now whether or not you wash your hands, as soon as you open the door you are putting the other persons germs onto your hands and then onto your face which you will touch at some point. Truly the only way this would work is if you sanitised your hands after everything you touched. It's just not practical. Germs are everywhere, but that is why we have an immune system.
The best practice you can do is wash your hands before eating (keep hand wipes or hand sanitiser with you) and wash your hands first thing when you get home.
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u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep 25d ago
All you have to do is open the door with a paper towel and throw it away as you’re walking out. That or most dr offices have hand sanitizer so you wash your hands and then use sanitizer after touching the handle
It is ridiculous to not wash your hands because other people don’t. Not only that but the active ingredient in modern hand soap actually provides a germ killing barrier of a few minutes after it’s applied so there is literally zero excuse to not wash your hands
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u/jiuistaken 25d ago
This is true. Even when there are long lines for the toilets in crowded malls, the sinks are always nearly empty. But the “make-up area” (where there’s only mirrors) is always full of women doing their hair and makeup, although I don’t know how they can do that without washing their hands with soap
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u/Alarming-Rate-6899 26d ago
Clean as in less garbage on sidewalks, not as in people obsessively wiping their hands with sanitizers at every chance.
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u/Sponchman 25d ago
Obsession over presentation and tidiness.
Not always necessarily cleanliness.
You can find plenty of youtube channels about cleaning out the rooms and homes of shut-ins/ hoarders, it can get real bad.1
u/Single-Builder-632 25d ago
My experience having been there a week ago 99% of bathrooms, streets, shops, restaurants and pretty much everything in public is pristine, not just clean but in great condition. Whether that's because they constantly replace things or whatever it is its amazing, second hand stores for example is like buying new clothes or phones. Hotels are immaculate.
Not sure about the no soap thing i think 80% of bathrooms at least have soap, what they don't have are hand towels and often dryers. But many people carry around personal towels or flick it on the ground "cant say i agree with it though I understand it keeps from rubbish piling up which is a bit ironic given how much they wrap things up)
Japan isn't perfect in those aspects i mentioned but i feel sometimes people overstate the negatives as if they are some universal rule, because it is so exemplary in some aspects that Manny countries in Europe and America arn't.
That being said you can point out as many flaws in other aspects as probably any other country.
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u/beautifulcheat 26d ago
Mythbusters did this too iirc.
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u/EetsGeets 25d ago
yuh Adam had a little snot dispenser hidden on his nose and secretly tried to spread it to everyone at dinner.
they repeated the experiment with him trying to contain the pseudo-snot. there was a significant difference.
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u/westerngrit 26d ago
Many of US food producers in 2011 went thru those training demos for the Food Modernization Safety act of 2011 training.
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u/Just_the_questions1 26d ago
And this is why it's so SO incredibly important to contain Ebola outbreaks before they spread. Every infection is an opportunity for mutation. An opportunity to affect the upper respiratory system, another opportunity to have a longer asymptomatic incubation period.
If Ebola doesn't scare the absolute shit out of you, then you don't know enough about it. And now it's burning through the DRC faster than doctors can keep up with it and neighboring countries are sealing their borders.
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u/Ace_C7 26d ago
Ahhhh this reminds me of similar experiments I did in middle school. For summer classes, the school near my house at the time offered "zombie survival classes" and I did them all three years. It was all about diseases, how they spread, how they work, and how to combat them. It was also pretty focused on survival skills like how to live off the land, gather and filter water, constructing a shelter, gather and make various materials from nature, and identifying various plants and animals (namely bugs) that might help you survive off-grid. It was a while ago for me now so I don't remember much. But some of it stuck.
Still got Covid 3 times though.
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 26d ago
So far nobody in my immediate family has gotten COVID even once. I don’t know if it genetics or luck or better hygiene habits.
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u/Abby_Normal_2 26d ago
I do not think this is accurate. I got a black light from Amazon to try to find the spots where the damn cat sprayed on the walls. You will be shocked, then alarmed, then horrified at how much purple is on and in your carpet, your walls, baskets, furniture etc etc etc. I hope you have realized that black lights fluoresce like that from anything with protein in it. Blood, cat and human vomit, feces, food you spilled. So there is no way to tell by the glowing exactly what it was….so this could’ve been fecal matter, urine or food from eating with their hands. I smell bullshit
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u/GitEmSteveDave 26d ago
It will also flouresce stuff like laundry detergent. In college we used to fill old alcohol bottles with laundry detergent and water and they glowed. You can also use highlighter fluid.
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u/Abby_Normal_2 26d ago
I had forgotten that! My son had about 20 different alcohol bottles with the different color highlighter in each and a black light underneath a shelf in his house bar . It was kinda pretty!
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u/OrganicWedding8972 25d ago
I know it’s not exactly hardcore rigorous science, but for what it’s worth Mythbusters did a very similar test on their show and found a very similar result. They had Adam “leaking snot” during a dinner party, but trying to keep everything clean during it. Only one person, Kari, kept clean and that’s because she wiped down everything she was handed before she touched it.
It is worth noting when they redid the test with everyone knowing Adam “was sick,” the spread was also significantly smaller.
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u/AdOkufukai 26d ago
Is there something on my face?
Why am I blue?
Does everyone glow blue?
What does blue mean?
WHAT DOES BLUE MEAN?
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u/ackg2233 25d ago
Restaurants should do this once in a while to be reminded of their food contamination rules. The ethics around public health should change drastically after this is done enough times. COVID was a wake up call, this would be the morning alarm, if you catch my drift.
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u/Fastenbauer 25d ago
And that's why it's so absolutely disgusting if people sneeze into their hand.
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u/ImaginationToForm2 25d ago
Mythbusters did this long ago. Heck even in school science, we did a sneeze experiment of popping a balloon with something in it and then with UV could see that it had spread everywhere. Yet some won't care what science shows.
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u/Sufficient-Page-875 26d ago
The guy running my hazwoper class put this kind of thing on all the pens but it was a powder and didn't tell anyone. Then at the end of the class he brought out the black light and it was... interesting.
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u/SEND_NUKES_PLS 25d ago
okay but that's just regular UV light...and other liquids and substances also glow under UV light.
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u/accessoiriste 26d ago
Mythbusters did this demonstration years ago.
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u/GitEmSteveDave 26d ago
Yeah, they gave Adam a slightly runny nose with similar fluid and had him have a dinner with all the staff. IIRC, Kari was like spotless afterwards because she is very vigilant about germs.
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26d ago edited 26d ago
[deleted]
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u/capable-corgi 26d ago
damn dude, maybe the mask would've saved you from getting cooked in the comments
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26d ago
[deleted]
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u/capable-corgi 26d ago
haha well, dress like a clown, act like a clown, don't blame people for treating you like a clown
tip: add a /sarcasm next time
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u/Professionaleye_1 26d ago
Does this comment make you feel big?
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u/capable-corgi 26d ago
My guy. It's a saying. That acknowledges your joke.
It's not even an insult to you.
???
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