Catch it, bin it, kill it (From Croydon Guardian)

Catch it, bin it, kill it

12:32pm Friday 25th April 2008

• Print
• Email

I have been impatiently waiting for one of that large band of journalists, who air our prejudices day by day and reassure us that we have not yet flipped our lid, to comment on the recent NHS campaign. I am sure the revenue from the full page advertisements was welcomed by the newspaper proprietors but that is no excuse for letting such a misguided campaign pass without comment.
For those who have somehow missed the campaign I should explain it sets out to persuade us to use tissues when we cough or sneeze.
Obviously written and revued purely by females of our species, or by a male frightened into submission.
For centuries the civilised members of the human race have used handkerchiefs.
Smaller pretty handkerchiefs for the ladies.
Larger plain, or initialed, handkerchiefs for the men.
Years of development proved the right size for both and the right densely woven material, cotton of course.
Under pressure, when rapidly running through my stock of handkerchiefs during a heavy cold I have tried one of those pathetic tissues, even 3 ply ones, and received my just deserts, in my hand, to show just how stupid I had been.
No man I know would dream of using a tissue to blow his nose, one attempt shows they are no good for the job.
A tissue makes it more likely, probably certain, that one will get germs on one’s hands and hence spread them onto everything you touch, thus infecting others.
The advice given in the NHS campaign is clearly bad advice.
One question is how can such bad advice be passed for widespread publication.
Perhaps an even more important question is does the NHS really have the funds to waste on a campaign to tell us how to blow our noses even if they were promoting the centuries proven handkerchief ?.
Someone, somewhere in the NHS, and clearly not in front-line service, has clearly got nothing better to do with themselves than dream up tom-fool ways of squandering our taxes when there are a million and one ways that money could be far better spent within the NHS..