Hygiene theater

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Hygiene theater is the practice of taking hygiene measures that are intended to give the illusion of improved safety while doing little to actually reduce any risk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, hygiene theater has often been performed by retail businesses in an effort to ease concerns of potential customers, while actually doing little to mitigate the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

History

One of the first written uses of the term was in a March 6, 2020, blog post by Bob Cooney, a recreational virtual reality consultant, [8] in which he said that VR-arcade operators should "practice hygiene theater" for customers as the COVID-19 pandemic began. [9] Even earlier written use was in a listener's comment on April 29, 2020, on radio personality Tom Leykis's website. [10] On July 27, 2020, Derek Thompson, a staff writer for The Atlantic , used the term when referring to hygiene measures being taken during the COVID-19 pandemic that have done little to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and have provided a false sense of security. [1] [3]

Measures taken against COVID-19 that have been referred to as hygiene theater include deep cleaning (aside from in hospitals), temperature checks, plexiglass barriers, and the spraying of disinfectants by humans and robots. [1] [2] [3] [5] Cleaning and disinfection measures have persisted despite widespread recognition that SARS-CoV-2 rarely, if ever, spreads through surface contact. [7] [11]

In the United States, many forms of hygiene theater were still in use in some establishments in June 2021. [12] Organizations such as the Kennedy Center continued to deploy temperature checks, even while acknowledging that the benefits were psychological, not medicinal. [12] However, amidst the general reopening of the US, the specifics of what practices were done were varied enormously, as companies updated rules and continued to adapt to customer behavior. [12]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Thompson, Derek (July 27, 2020). "Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Thompson, Derek (February 8, 2021). "Hygiene Theater Is Still a Huge Waste of Time". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Landsverk, Gabby (October 14, 2020). "5 bogus coronavirus protection measures that are just 'hygiene theater' — and 2 things that actually do work". Insider . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  4. ↑ Palumbo, Alysha (November 24, 2020). "Is Deep Cleaning Just 'Hygiene Theater' in the Age of COVID?". WBTS-CD . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Thorbecke, Catherine; Lambert, Alexandra (September 20, 2020). "'Hygiene theater': Disinfecting sprays and sanitizing robots alone won't keep you safe from COVID-19". ABC News . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  6. ↑ Ives, Mike; Mandavilli, Apoorva (November 19, 2020). "The Coronavirus Is Airborne Indoors. Why Are We Still Scrubbing Surfaces?". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  7. 1 2 Anthes, Emily (April 8, 2021). "Has the Era of Overzealous Cleaning Finally Come to an End? -- This week, the C.D.C. acknowledged what scientists have been saying for months: The risk of catching the coronavirus from surfaces is low". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Pandemic Travel Buzzwords We Hope Get Left Behind in 2020" Skift.com. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  9. ↑ "Word of the week: Hygiene theater" Fritinancy. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  10. ↑ "Apr 28th, 2020 | Tom Talks". April 28, 2020.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Dyani (January 29, 2021). "COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?" . Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Fisher, Marc (June 14, 2021). "Temp checks, digital menus and 'touchless' mustard: The maddening persistence of 'hygiene theater'". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved June 14, 2021.


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