A new study from the University of Surrey reveals that nearly half the people using hospital toilets aren’t washing their hands. The same hands that just got up all up in someone’s genitals or butt are now skipping the soap and heading straight back into patient care or lunch breaks.

The BBC reports on a 19-week study conducted at Denmark’s Bispebjerg Hospital, which used pipe sensors to monitor 2,636 flushes discreetly. Of those, 43.7 percent were followed by zero handwashing. That number spiked as high as 61.8 percent during certain weeks, most notably around the start and end of each day…which just so happens to be around the same time as breakfast and dinner.

Lovely. Just lovely.

A Horrifying Amount of People Skip Handwashing in Hospital Toilets

The researchers had hoped, perhaps naively, that the global trauma of COVID-19 might’ve hardwired handwashing into our muscle memory. It didn’t! Because many of us cannot be convinced to put in the minimal effort required to protect other people, even if, as stated by one of the study’s authors, Dr. Pablo Pereira Doel, simply washing your hands could “directly affect patient safety.”

NHS England still maintains that handwashing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses, flu, and other superbugs that may be lurking in an ICU.

Professor Benjamin Gardner told the BBC that the solution probably lies in simple behavioral nudges, like putting up signs that suggest singing “Happy Birthday” twice while scrubbing. That’s a nice idea. And some people will care enough to follow the suggestions. However, there is a fundamental issue here, and that’s getting people to care about others.

Not enough people understand the massive ramifications of small actions. These kinds of small actions, such as washing your hands, have huge ramifications that are magnified in a place like a hospital, a building built on the premise of not just healing, but also mitigating risk to further illness.

If you’re touching your genitals and then immediately racing off to intubate a patient, you’re not really upholding your end of the Hippocratic oath. You’re a vector for disease. Get your ball hands away from my immunocompromised self and take them directly to a sink.

I’m watching you, man. And don’t forget to lather those suckers up nice and good, too.