Day breaks as the sun rises at an ordinary office building in a town like any other. An employee who woke up with a mild sore throat and cough pulls up in the parking lot. To the excited germ in the car, this employee is just a host to hitch a ride on. The germ has one goal; to multiply and spread itself around. Our host coughs in their hands, scratches the bottom of their nose and walks to the front door for the adventure to begin:
8 am: The cold bug sees the door handle in sight. It is hoping to leave some of itself in this nice common surface. As our worker grasps the handle, the germ has allowed itself to stay on the hand AND spread onto the door handle. He yells to his germ buddies to spread far and wide then turns to wait at the main entrance for more people to arrive at work.
8:05 am: The host touches the elevator call button, the button for their floor and holds the door open for a co-worker who is greeted with a handshake.
8:15 am: Our germs relax and enjoy the ride now on our original host, the co-worker in the elevator and everyone who touched the same surfaces. Infected co-worker heads to the coffee-pot, opens the refrigerator door for cream. “Hurray!” cries the germs, “a porous surface with little grooves in it! We can get real comfortable here!”
9:30 am: Our once lonely germ has now spread itself throughout the building, up the handrail on the stairs, the bathroom doors and even onto several keyboards.
10 am: A non-suspecting germ carrier who took the elevator this morning has a problem with their computer and IT comes to take a look. All the germs partying on the keyboard are jumping with the excitement of another host.
12 pm: By lunchtime, the bug has spread itself to about half of the common surfaces in the building. The building has been overtaken by microscopic troublemakers who only fear, hot water, soap and hand sanitizer!
“A sad soul can kill you quicker than a germ.” John Steinbeck