a compelling (hotel setting confined adult population) study i saw at 
     the annual meeting of the assoc. research in otolaryngol years ago 
     related onset of the commoncold to manual/nasal apposition issues. in 
     other words people would fingertouch their nasal cavity (unless their 
     arms/hands were tethered - they didn't know why), then touch a 
     doorknob or whatever, then a second individual would touch the 
     doorknob then the nose...voila.
     i have always thought this could be a big issue in child daycare if 
     they are anything like my daughter anyway. meanwhile, if they are 
     outside in the cold, presumably they would be wearing gloves and nose 
     access, and thus pathogen transfer would be limited. plus potential 
     transfer substrates are more dispersed. thus the other issues 
     discussed recently may not be such major players.
     the author was killed during the discussion. maybe culturally, people 
     don't want to think about nosepicking transfer mechanisms, 
     particularly between adults.
     meanwhile, since that lecture i never touch the support bars on the 
     new york city subway trains (in particular).
     
     what does the learned nose community think about this one?
     is this a well documented issue?
     
     Regards,
     Patrick J. Gannon, PhD
     
     




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