Here's to a COVID-Free Christmas

 

I think we can all agree, 2020 is one for the books that will never be forgotten. Never, since the start of the Talk Clean To Me blog, have I had a year primarily focused to a single topic.  As I write this blog, Christmas is only 2 sleeps away and while saying goodbye to one year is generally hard, I am ready to kick out 2020 and hope that 2021 brings more cheer than fear!  Over 2020, Talk Clean To Me averaged over 3200 page views per month and for that I am grateful to you and your support and interest in reading and sharing the blogs each week.

As you can see from the top 10 Talk Clean to Me blogs for 2020, the topics are varied, even if the subject was primarily COVID-19!  In David Letterman style, let’s count down to the most widely read blogs: 

1. Canine Case of COVID-19 – This blog explored early reports about possible COVID-19 infections in dogs.
2. COVID-19 Surface Survival – Early on, the ability of the virus to survive on surfaces was unclear. Figuring this out was a key piece in determining how to respond to the pandemic. 
3. Coronavirus Clean Up – One of the first major COVID headlines came as the Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined due to an outbreak. The cruise line needed to enlist a cleaning and disinfection service provider capable of using Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide^® disinfectants.
4. How to Tell if Your Disinfectant Kills COVID-19 – This is always a huge concern whenever a new pathogen arises. This blog breaks down how to figure out whether your disinfectant has you covered for COVID-19.
5. Disinfectant Fake News – How to separate fact from fiction when evaluating disinfectant marketing claims.
6. COVID Cleaning can Cause Catastrophes – Calls to poison control related to exposure to cleaning and disinfectant products spiked during the pandemic, due to increased use.
7. Cleaning COVID from Chow – A pandemic trend involved wearing gloves while grocery shopping, but this can provide a false sense of security. 
8. Do Changes to the COVID-19 Protein Spikes Mean a Second Strain? – While the idea of a virus mutating may instill fear, we need to look beyond the headlines to understand what this really means.
9. What is Your Cleaning, Sanitizing and Disinfection IQ? – While terms like “cleaning”, “sanitizing” and “disinfecting” get thrown around interchangeably, they each have a unique meaning.
10. COVID, Like Water, Flows Freely Along its Path – Understanding the new virus has been a learning curve for all of us, but the main things we can do to protect ourselves have remained unchanged.

To quote from Dr. Seuss “And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store?  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” 

To put into the context of infection prevention, what if saving lives, reducing HAIs and fighting pandemics is not all about the quest for the silver bullet, focusing on what a product kills or who is or who is not doing their job? What if 2020 brings us wisdom, strength and courage?  What if 2020 brings us the wisdom to realize that we cannot continue with the status quo?  What if 2020 gives us the strength to fight for what we know is right and courage to not back down in the face of adversity and put our patients, our residents and clients lives first?

Wishing everyone a Happy Holidays! 

Bugging Off for 2020!

Nicole

 

From Panic to Zen

With the holidays looming, this week marked my last webinar of the year.  2020 certainly has been an exciting year, not just because of the pandemic, but because of the outpouring of requests and need for education on cleaning and disinfection and basic infection prevention and control.

This week’s webinar was targeted to the professional beauty market, which was hit hard due with mandatory closures. During reopening, there was a pressing need to establish protocols to ensure clients would feel comfortable coming back for treatments. Dafne Berlanga from Universal Company and Joanna Roche from Green Spa Network joined me in to shed some light on how the pandemic shaped infection prevention processes, distribution of products and the importance of having a community to turn to during chaotic times.

As organizations, we all had a front row seat to how the pandemic has impacted the professional beauty space - the following are a few of the questions we discussed during the webinar.

1. What is the biggest change you have seen in the industry since March?
2. We have seen a lot of waste and excess because of the pandemic, how important is it to take a step back and re-evaluate our protocols?
3. Do you feel that misinformation has been an issue during the pandemic? And if so, how did your organizations help to deliver accurate information to your audience?
4. This isn’t the first pandemic and it certainly won’t be the last, how do you think that changes implemented have set us up for success in the future?

If you’re interested in learning what we talked about and how the audience reacted to the polls we sent here’s the link!

https://www.viroxprobeauty.com/webinars/from-panic-to-zen-professional-beautys-resilience-in-the-face-of-a-pandemic

Bugging Off!

Nicole