Picking your nose increases your risk of catching coronavirus

A new study of healthcare workers in the Netherlands found that those who engaged in the unhygienic habit were almost three times more likely to catch COVID-19 than those who did not.

One in five nose pickers tested positive for the virus over the course of the seven-month study compared to less than one in 20 among those who did not.

Experts suggest that nose picking puts people more at risk of COVID as the virus transfers from the hands to the nasal canal.

In their conclusion, the boffins wrote: "This is the first study that shows that nose picking by healthcare workers is associated with an increased risk of contracting COVID.

"It is surprising to observe the extensiveness in which the scientific community (including our own study team) has researched all sorts of SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes ... yet assessing the role of simple behavioural and physical properties has so far been overlooked."

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