Songs for (oops)Sunday: Songs to wash your hands by

[mdlbear]

(Aside: I meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted)

It wasn't hard to figure out what to write about today -- everybody's writing about using a song chorus to time your 20 seconds of hand-washing.

The generic advice is to sing "Happy Birthday" twice. That works, I suppose, but my filker's mind immediately went to the other birthday song:

Doom destruction and despair People dying everywhere Happy birthday (ugh) happy birthday. Now that you're the age you are Your demise can not be far Happy birthday (ugh) happy birthday.

Two verses is about right, and those were the most appropriate ones I could come up with on short notice. Feel free to sing whichever inappropriate verses you want to. I mentioned it in (of course) my birthday post yesterday.

When I linked to the FlattenTheCurve page on Thursday, it immediately inspired Song: Flatten the Curve by The Mad Filkentist. Because filkers.

For those who are more into more recent music, the Seattle Times recently published a list of "Coronavirus prevention: 10 awesome songs to sing while you wash your hands", complete with official videos. Try not to get your phone wet while you're singing along. Naturally, I'd only ever heard one of them. "Jolene", in case it matters.

In case you prefer cute, there's Wash your hands, Brother John! - YouTube. There seem to be quite a few different versions out there. I like the idea of making a kids' game out of it.

Mongol Birthday Song Public Domain, TTTO The Song of the Volga Boatmen" Doom destruction and despair People dying everywhere Happy birthday (ugh) happy birthday. Now that you're the age you are Your demise can not be far Happy birthday (ugh) happy birthday.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

I'm afraid people think these measures will just be for a few weeks, after which we can go back to normal. Once they realize it's most likely a long-term matter, there's going to be a lot of discontent. Ramping up more slowly might have been a more effective strategy for the long term, even if it didn't bring the curve down as much to start with.

It's interesting to read comparative history and discover the tough choices people had to make during the Spanish Flu. The Influenza Archive has a lot of information.

[mdlbear]

Thanks for the link. In case you missed it, siderea did a post series about the 2018 flu; largely using the Influenza Archive.