OK. I am not a doctor, nor do I play a doctor on TV. However, I AM a mother! (A mother who does not want to catch every disease the kids bring home from school!) And I have been telling my kids for YEARS what a special guest doctor told Al Roker on the Today Show this morning. What is this big important educational piece of wisdom? Well, it is your lucky day! I am gonna tell ya!
That covering your cough or sneeze with your hands does little to no good! I have been having my kids to sneeze and cough into their sleeve for years now! In fact, a few years ago, one of the kid’s dads said “why are you coughing into your elbow?” They said “because Wendy said so.” But really, it is just the right thing to do! 
Maybe I missed my calling! 
haha I saw this segment today! You were wise beyond your years mom =)
Yeah and you can wipe your nose
with your sleeve too…Then go
and hug someone while there’s
that big green slug looking thing
hanging from your arm….
I’m sooooooo geeross!! I know
But you’re laughing your a$$ off…
HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!
i’ve always known that moms are smarter than doctors. moms spend a lifetime in school and doctors? maybe 10. besides, when you cough into your arm, you can kill two birds with one stone and see if your underpits are smelly! (mine never are, i’ve just heard it happens to people sometimes). or maybe you could even cop a personal feel!
sweet you saw it too! why thank you queerunity!
ah Laurie! leave it to you! love it! and of course i am laughing my a$$ off!
hey annie! LOL!!! so true!! see, i am still learning new things every day between you and Laurie!!
{HUGS}!!! to you all!!!
I still prefer using my hand. Plus I use my left hand. But it’s a lot easier washing my hands than it is to wash my sleeve that had some “stuff” sneezed or coughed into it.
Coughing/sneezing into the bend of the elbow would be most accurate.
As for using your hand… just think how many other things you use your hands for. Are you absolutely sure you got every single one of those cooties off?! If not, which one do you think is left? The one that got on when you were…. or the other one?
Thanks Doc! I cant believe how many passengers we see on the airplane sneezing all around us, most not even covering thier mouths. Some sneeze in their hands and then ask us for a drink or food…and then hand us those same cups and wrappers at the end of the flight….I am amazed I am not sicker throughout the year!
Good advice here! Can you share with our passengers? ; )
Have a great and healthy weekend!
Was your kindergarten teacher’s name Mrs. Alexander?
She’s the one who taught me this when I was 5yrs old. You are a good mom and I bet you’d be a great kindergarten teacher!
Hey Steven! Good to see you! Well, you are right about the icky dirty sleeve thing.
The young kids don’t seem to get the sneezing into the hands very effectively… so the sleeve works for them. But we adults, I think we have it covered… however we cover! 
Hi mssc54: Chuckling!!! Love it!! SOOOO true!! I mean, which is the lesser of 2 evils huh?
Yes, the elbow is what I told the kids… and what their dads thought was weird. Hey, like I said, I am trying to avoid every “plague” that comes through! 
Hey Blair!! I totally think that this little graphic I have in this post (which can be found online) should be posted on the back of each and every seat on every plane! I don’t know how you do it! I would have a mini holster of anti-bacterial gel on my belt at all times! Maybe I can come give your passengers a demonstration!
Of course like leakelley said… shouldn’t we all have learned this in kindergarten?
leakelley: Actually her name was Miss Teel, and she was amazing! I don’t know who taught me, it just seems like common courtesy… don’t spray!
Why thank you!!! And I kindergarten teacher wouldn’t be a bad job! 
You are right about coughing into your elbow. You might be interested in something my friend sent me. It is called a Germy Wormy. It reduces the spread of germs as it is a “disposable sleeve to protect clothes” and is a great tool to teach my kids to cough and sneeze in their elbow instead of their hands. (This is the way the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends to prevent the spread of germs.) Check out their website.
germywormy.com
They have a fun for kids puppet show, activities, and a place to order the “arm sleeve”.
You all think you have it figured out! Well guess what? What your child sneeze or cough into his or her “sleeve.” How many germs land on the sleeve and how much gets spattered into the air? I would say 2percent sleeve and 98 percent into the air.
I will get some photographers from the school of public health here at the university to take a high-speed video of a child coughing into his or her sleeve. Then I will call CNN for them to air the footage. Only then will the CDC be notified that this “solution” was an hoax all along. It was an attempt to placate parents like you. Cough into a tissue, hankerchief or BOTH hands and then was your hands. Maybe teachers need to get over the fact that hands need to be washed with REAL soap and water in school Teachers are under so much pressure to meet standards, washing hands the right way seems to have been stricken from the curriculum. SOAP, not this liquid pseudo-soap.
I’ve been coughing on my elbows/shoulders since I learned about it.