@Printlife - Gloves do NOTHING. The virus cannot go through intact skin and I bet even broken skin within reason doesn't matter because of how this bug targets. I'm not at all sure you'd actually get a clinical case of it if you managed to get it in cut on your skin.

Now for something that can go through intact skin (chemical exposure) or a bug that can take advantage of defects (and most of us have some whether we realize it or not) it's a different matter. In health care blood-born disease is a very real problem generally (HIV anyone?) and you have no idea generally what other issues a patient has. So yeah, gloves are good, but not to stop transmission of this thing.

The problem with thinking you're protected with gloves is that you're actually worse off with something that's not blood-born since you can't really wash them repeatedly with soap and water; the abrasion will break them. Further, your hands MUST be clean before you don them out of a package or you'll contaminate them and of course once you doff them you have to do it correctly and then immediately wash your hands (again). Again, lots of reasons to use them in health care, but this virus isn't one of them.

Yeah, if you cut some habaneros with gloves on you'll learn REAL FAST to keep your gloved hands away from your face... and off your dick too.

The big problem with a fecal/oral bug isn't just you, it's cross-contamination generally. That's why the only protocol that works is before and after contact with any surface, item or person that could be contaminated you wash your hands -- on both sides of the potential contaminated contact.

That way YOU can't contaminate anything or anyone and IT cannot contaminate you.

Trust me -- absolutely NOBODY follows that protocol in an American hospital. Zero. I've never seen ANYONE do it. Ever.

The hands off the face thing is actually the secondary line of defense since it only protects you and does not address the cross-contamination risk for everyone else.

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