Florida nurse's choice words to avoid flu: 'Wash your stinking hands'

[February 03, 2018]  By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) - A Florida nurse has offered some frank advice for people whose lax hygiene is contributing to a deadly flu outbreak, including "wash your stinking hands!"

In the six-minute video entitled "After Work Thoughts", which has been watched more than 6 million times since it was posted on Facebook last weekend, Katherine Lockler unloaded her frustrations after long shifts in the emergency room.

"There is a cesspool of funky flu at the ER right now," said Lockler, wearing hospital scrubs and speaking to the camera from the driver's seat of her car. "Wash your stinking hands so you don't get all your babies sick!"

Hospitalizations for flu have reached their highest level in the United States for nearly a decade, U.S. health officials said on Friday. The illness is widespread in 48 states and has killed more than 50 children.

In the video, Lockler gives a strained smile as she offers ideas for avoiding spreading flu, and shows how to sneeze safely by placing one's face against a sleeve at a bent elbow.

The so-called "Dracula Sneeze", resembling the way the fictional vampire covers his face with a cloak, is recommended by doctors to prevent the spread of airborne illnesses.

Some online viewers were unimpressed by her blunt approach.

"Sounds like she is in the wrong field," wrote one Facebook user, Teresa Welsh, accusing Lockler of "talking down" to her intended audience.

But others praised her advice, including Facebook user Marty Saupe, who wrote: "Told as only a nurse who's worked the front lines can!"

The Pensacola News Journal reported that Lockler lives in the Florida panhandle town of Milton. Lockler did not return calls seeking an interview.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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